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THE PRIVATE PALACES
OF LONDON
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THE PRIVATE
PALACES (?/ LONDON
PAST AND PRESENT
BY
E. BERESFORD CHANCELLOR, M.A.
F.R. Hist. Soc.
AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF THE SQUARES OF LONDON," ETC. ETC.
'■ A good house is a great comfort , . . and among the few felicilies
thai money nu'di procure." — Mrs. Montagu.
WITH FORTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER Gf CO. L'^''
DRYDEN HOUSE, GERRARD STREET, W.
1908
•^<f>
The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &> Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
LIBRARY
UNivrpnivv c; California
SANTA BARBARA
TO
R. T. PORTER, Esq.
WITH AFFECTIONAIE REGARD
FROM
THE AUTHOR
PREFACE
IN this work I have endeavoured to rehabilitate in some way the
characteristics of the more important of the famous London houses
which have long since passed away, as well as to give an account of
the annals of those which still remain ; together with references to
the notable people who have, from time to time, been connected with
them. So far as existing mansions are concerned, I have also attempted
to give some idea of the beautiful objects which are contained in them —
particularly the pictures, without setting down mere lists of painter's
names and subjects treated ; and I have tried, by producing, where
possible, some interesting provenance, or by connecting these works of
art with some interesting figure, to avoid making my account of them
a merely bald catalogue which, valuable as such a compilation is in itself,
is rarely very exhilarating to the general reader.
The difficulty, which it would be mere affectation to ignore, of doing
this has been so largely modified by the generous help extended to me
by the owners of the great mansions I have described, that I feel that
if I have attained any measure of success it is due to their kindness, and
to the interest they have shown in this work. Many of them have
afforded me personal help ; many have placed at my disposal privately
printed catalogues, and have permitted documents to be searched for
the elucidation of some obscure point in the history of their mansions,
and have, besides, given me other aids to accuracy of description ;
while all of them have permitted me to see all I wanted to see, and to
describe all I have attempted to describe ; and I here most gratefully
acknowledge their many kindnesses.
My thanks are also due to many of the private secretaries and other
representatives of these owners, who have also aided me in my researches.
With regard to the chapter on the old houses in Whitehall, I have, of
course, largely based it on that portion of Canon Sheppard's The Old Royal
Palace of Whitehall which specifically deals with them, and is par-
ticularly rich in its record of old leases and other documentary evidence,
without which it would have been impossible to give in many instances
a connected genealogy of these interesting residences. I have browsed
viii . PREFACE
much here, and with a Hght heart, because I received the author's generous
and ungrudging permission to do so.
So far as the past private palaces, other than those in Whitehall, are
concerned I have made use of the rich topographical hterature dealing
with London which we possess ; but, as usual, to no one work am I
more indebted than to Mr. Wheatley's London Past and Present.
Waagen and Passavant, Smith and Mrs. Jameson, have helped me
much with regard to the great picture collections I have had occasion
to deal with ; while from innumerable other works on art and artists
I have culled here and there a fact which has often enabled me to say
something more about a picture than to merely set down the name of
its painter or the nature of its subject.
I am only too well aware that I might have done better — but I have
done as well as I could, and above all I have endeavoured to " set down
nought in malice " ; and if among my readers there be some to whom
what I try to describe is well known, and therefore vieux jeti, I would
ask them to remember that my chief aim has been to make known to
those who may not be so familiar with these great houses, the beautiful
things that are contained in them, and the intrinsic interest that centres
in each.
With regard to the illustrations of this book the first ten are repro-
ductions from old prints and drawings in the Grace Collection ; those
of the three pictures in the Bridgewater House Gallery are from
photographs taken by Mr. J. F. Hollyer of 9 Pembroke Square,
Kensington ; while those of the interiors and exteriors of the various
houses are reproduced from photographs taken by Messrs. Bedford
Lemere & Co. of 147 Strand, W.C, Mr. H. N. King of 8 Avenue
Road, Shepherd's Bush, and Mr. Reginald Haines of 4 Southampton
Row. All these photographs are copyright, and I wish to associate
myself with my publishers in acknowledging the courtesy of the above-
named gentlemen in allowing these reproductions to illustrate so
graphically my pages.
E. B. C.
Sept. 15, 1908.
INTRODUCTION
IF we sought for one particular feature distinguishing London from
the other capitals of Europe, apart from its immense proportions,
it would probably be found in the number of its large houses many
of which are indeed the private palaces that I have here called them.
The chief streets of the Metropolis are easily equalled and excelled
by those in Paris, Berlin, and Vienna ; its churches, numerous as they are,
and, in many cases, architecturally fine, can hardly compare with those
in many of the lesser continental towns ; its parks and open spaces do
not greatly excel in beauty those of Brussels or Paris ; but its great houses
are, as they have always been, a distinctive note in the picture, and,
mutatis mutandis, may, in many cases, compare with those palaces for
which Venice was once famous. But there is this difference between
these mansions on the banks of the Thames and those on the shores of the
Adriatic ; the latter have in most instances passed from their once high
estate to more utilitarian uses, and their chief glory lies in the beauty of their
exteriors ; whereas, if the majority of the London palaces cannot lay claim to
such outwardly striking attributes, nearly every one of them contains such
a wealth of beautiful objects — pictures, furniture, china, and a thousand
and one objets d'art — that they may defy comparison with the chateaux of
France, and even with Venetian palazzi in the days of their prosperity.
In many cases, too, these old houses remain in the hands of the great
families whose names have been associated with them for generations,
and where this is not the case, they have been lucky enough to pass into
the possession of those whose instinct and pride it seems to be to preserve
intact the past traditions connected with them.
Here and there, indeed, we find some great mansion which has had a
later genesis in the accumulation of wealth ; others that have passed
into alien hands ; but in either case, as if a tutelary deity had guarded the
ghosts that haunt its stones or the spot on which it has been raised, its
owners have either emulated the spirit of an earlier day by filling it with
the precious relics of antiquity, or have preserved with reverent care its
former characteristics, and have, in many cases, restored to their old home
those treasures of art which formed, in a bygone age, its chief adornment,
and which in the course of time had been alienated, for a period, from it.
X INTRODUCTION
Subject to the inevitable fate which it would seem must almost
necessarily overtake even the finest buildings of this kind in a great and
growing city like London, some of the great houses that have remained
till within our own recollection in private hands, have either passed away
or have been converted to alien, if so far as the general public is concerned
better, uses. Harcourt House in Cavendish Square, which is to-day repre-
sented by a huge, and considering its position in such a " quadrate," incon-
gruous block of residential flats, and Ashburnham House, once at the
corner of Hay Hill and Dover Street, have been subjected to such a trans-
formation ; the wonderful Northumberland House at Charing Cross is now
almost forgotten, so entirely has the remembrance of its Jacobean fa9ade
and its famous Lion been effaced by building development, and the con-
struction of the street that by its name alone preserves its fleeting memory ;
while many of the great houses in Whitehall have either entirely dis-
appeared or have been transformed into portions of Government offices,
curiously intermixed with more modern and elaborate erections, so that
they have the air of some human relic of an earlier period, who has
" out-stayed his welcome while," and still wears the garb of a day that
is gone.
But besides these which we have ourselves seen pass away or suffer
a change as startling as it seems inevitable, there remains to be recorded
a large number of great houses which are known to us merely by the
pencil of the artist or the pen of the topographer.
In the first place there is the remarkable series of noble mansions
which once existed in the heart of the City itself. These old private
palaces, or Inns as they were formerly called, once shed lustre over streets
now so wholly commercial as the Minories or Aldersgate Street, and
districts now so unfashionable as Clerkenwell and Holborn ; then there
was that long line of palaces which extended on the south side of Fleet
Street and the Strand, from Devonshire House which occupied a large
portion of the site of the present Devonshire Square, to York House
the magnificent residence of the briUiant Buckingham the memory of
whose more than royal establishment is to-day preserved only by the
names of the streets that exhaust the words of his chief title. Where
now are Bedford House and Montagu House, in Bloomsbury, which
in their day were so much the wonders of London, that foreigners
were wont to be taken to see them as among the great sights of the
capital ? Where is Clarendon House, which, immemor sepulcri, the great
Chancellor raised at infinite pains and expense, and could hardly be said
to have inhabited, and which in the eyes of popular indignation was a
concrete proof of his time-serving and apostacy ? " Where are the
INTRODUCTION xi
snows of yester-year ? " You shall as soon find them as you shall Troy,
or the traditional Maypole of the Strand !
And then there are those great mansions that either exist in the shape
of more recent erections on their sites ; or those which have, by a process
of rebuilding, lost their original characteristics, and have become identified
with other usage. Of the former, there comes to mind Berkeley House,
the splendid forerunner of the present Devonshire House, and old
Montagu House, Whitehall, on the site of which the far more magnificent
present Montagu House now stands ; among the latter may be men-
tioned Burlington House, over which the architect-earl who built it took
such infinite pains, and which is now, with its added Piccadilly front, the
home of the Royal Academy, and the headquarters of several learned
societies ; and Melbourne House, once the home of Lord Melbourne (not
the Prime Minister but his father), and afterwards exchanged by him with
the Duke of York for York House, Piccadilly, which is now known to all
Londoners as " The Albany," from the Royal Duke's second title. Then
there is Newcastle House in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the former town resi-
dence of the eccentric Duke of Newcastle, the hero of half-a-hundred
stories, but now the splendid legal offices of a well-known firm ; and
Uxbridge House, in Burlington Gardens, the fine work of Vardy and
Bonomi, to-day occupied as the Western Branch of the Bank of England ;
and, to mention but one more instance, there is Schomberg House, Pall
Mall, of which but a fragment remains, but which is sufficient to enable
us to realise how imposing must have been the entire building before
the War Office alienated its centre and east wing.
But, notwithstanding all these, and how many others, that have
passed away or have been converted by the exigencies of time into other
uses, so many great mansions are still with us, most of them fraught
with historic memories, most of them haunted by the ghosts of the great
and beautiful of a past day, all of them filled with such a wealth of
splendid objects the outcome of the artistic endeavour of all ages and
of all countries, that London, as I began by saying, may still glory in the
possession of an unrivalled series of private palaces.
Nothing helps to show more clearly the vagaries of fashion in the
matter of residential locality, or the unhasting, unresting flow of citizens
westward, than the relative position occupied to-day by these great
houses, with that occupied by their forerunners. As we have seen, the
City was naturally, when we remember the limitations of London in
those days, the first fashionable quarter ; as time went on some more
daring spirits ventured so far westward as Charing Cross and the Strand ;
others selected the open country of Bloomsbury ; and yet others found
xii INTRODUCTION
their way into Lincoln's Inn Fields ; but with the reign of Charles II.
and the inception of St. James's Square by Lord St. Albans, the inaugura-
tion of the west end, somewhat as we know it to-day, began, and the
great houses of Piccadilly sprang into existence. Later still, when Sir
Richard Grosvenor commenced the development of the immense property
now covered by Mayfair, which had come to him through Mary Davies,
an impulse was given to the erection of fine houses in this quarter, and
even the magnificent Chesterfield — the glass of fashion and the mould of
form — did not disdain to erect the splendid mansion which luckily still
exists although shorn of its ample gardens, in a spot where, as he once
humorously said, thieves and murderers so abounded that he would be
obliged to keep a watch-dog.
Nowadays, however, the case is very different. The private palaces
of London cluster together, if not within that circumscribed radius
which Theodore Hook considered the quintessence of fashion, at least
within what we, in our enlarged ideas, are apt to regard as the centre
of fashionable life. Piccadilly and Park Lane, and the area known as
Mayfair of which these famous thoroughfares form two sides, and their
immediate vicinity is where we must now look for the residences of the
wealthy and the great. True there are some splendid houses north of
Oxford Street ; there is Portman House, in Portman Square, and Hertford,
formerly Manchester, House in Manchester Square, although this is now,
of course, a public gallery, to name but these ; there is Montagu House
in Whitehall, and there are the magnificent dwellings in Belgravia ; but,
so far as the great mansions with which I here deal are concerned, it is
in the more restricted area that we shall chiefly find them.
And this brings me to the subject of the selection I have made. In
the first place, it was obviously impossible to be exhaustive ; I mean,
to deal with every great house in London which, either from its associa-
tions, or from the beauty and interest of its contents, might seem to have
claimed a place in these pages.
With regard to the mansions which are no longer in existence,
I have endeavoured to say something about the most interesting and
the most important of them, but I have not said anything about those
that once congregated together in Chelsea, for two reasons ; in the first
place because, although many of them were fraught with interest, they
were none of them of such magnitude as to be considered exactly as
palaces, although parenthetically I am aware that in the case of some I
have included, a somewhat wide extension of this term has been necessary ;
and secondly because they were in former days looked upon as suburban
residences, many of their owners at the same time alternately occupying
INTRODUCTION xiii
houses in London itself ; while their sites have only become incorporated
with the City by its extraordinary extension in more recent days.^ For
the same reason, as well as for the better one that it has had a book
specially devoted to it, I omit the beautiful and particularly interesting
Holland House from this work.
Again there are a number of great houses in Belgravia, which from
their size at least might have been thought appropriate for inclusion
here ; but it is only their size that would under any circumstances give
them a claim to be included in these pages, for necessarily from the re-
latively recent development of the ground on which they stand, they
can pretend to no historic interest, and such splendid piles as Seaford
House, Belgrave Square, and Cadogan House, Chelsea, must therefore
be passed by with this bare allusion.
Then in Piccadilly, Bath House, and No. i Stratton Street, so long
associated with the Baroness Burdett-Coutts ; Hope House, and Hertford
House, now clubs and both bearing the name of former illustrious owners,
as well as Lord Rothschild's fine mansion next to Apsley House, could hardly
be included, splendid as they are, because had they been, then Curzon
House," and Alington House ; No. 9, Chesterfield Gardens, Lord Lecon-
field's London mansion ; and Bute House, to mention but these, could
not have been left out ; and had these been dealt with, there would
then have been innumerable important mansions in the great squares
with equal claims to be considered, and there would have been no end
to the book or its draft on the patience of its readers.
Selection in such cases is always rather a difficult matter ; if, as I
hope, I have avoided its being an invidious one, I may reckon myself
lucky. To evolve a logical definition of what may be rightly included
in a book dealing with Private Palaces is, I fear, almost impossible ; the
relative size of a house, though in itself alone obviously no certain criterion,
must at least be considered ; historic, personal or intrinsic interest should
also be present, while due weight must be given to architectural features,
and the beauty of internal decorations and value, monetary as well as
sentimental, of the contents ; and although it is of course a fact that
there are thousands of fine mansions in London fulfilling some one or
' Those who are interested in the matter will find details of the old Chelsea houses in
L'Estrange's Village of Palaces.
^ I have been sorely tempted to make an exception in favour of this beautiful mansion, not
only because of the charm of its interior with its splendid hall and mahogany staircase, where
hang two pieces of superb tapestry for which great sums have been offered ; its fine rooms with
their lovely marble mantelpieces and their thousand and one objects of interest and value ;
pictures and decorative furniture, and bric-a-brac; but also because Lord Howe has kindly
extended every facility to me for examining the house and its contents ; but unfortunately the
scheme of this work makes it impossible for me to do more than merely allude to it in this
slight way.
xiv INTRODUCTION
more of these conditions, the great houses I deal with are, I venture to
think, those alone that combine them all.
So far as their beautiful contents are concerned all of them are notable ;
some, such as Bridgewater, Stafford and Dorchester Houses, particularly
so, on account of the wonders of artistic achievement which hang on
their walls or are scattered about within their vast rooms ; some are
pre-eminently noticeable on account of their architectural features such
as Chesterfield House, Lansdowne House, and Spencer House, and to
mention more modern instances, Dorchester House, and Montagu House ;
others, if less ambitious, have still some claims in this respect, and are be-
sides hallowed by personal memories ; and of these are Apsley House
and Devonshire House, Norfolk House and Portman House.
But these I have named are merely special examples of characteristics
which are more or less present in them all, and it is because they are en-
dowed with such attributes that it has seemed to me that such a title as
that of Private Palaces is not inappropriate to any of them.
In dealing with these splendid mansions of the past and the present,
a reflection inevitably forces itself upon the mind ; a reflection, I am
bound to admit, which is not altogether a pleasant one. We have seen
how many of those great houses which our forefathers erected with such
loving care and at such vast expense, and each of which no doubt they
considered aere -perennius, have passed away, and how heavily " Time's
destroying hand " has dealt with them. What then are we to suppose
will be the fate of some of those which to-day would seem to be armed so
as to defy Time ? Some we know are held on leasehold tenure, and
when their term has run, may be ruthlessly demolished ; others stand
proudly in the midst of ever-changing conditions of building develop-
ment ; will they be, in their turn, attacked, and if so — what then ?
And lastly, if a century and a half ago the westward movement began
to carry fashion into what then seemed the outskirts and wilds of the
Town ; may not a lesser space of time be sufficient to accentuate this
movement so much that what to us are now the unfashionable portions
of greater London may become the centre of the fashionable life of the
future, as select as Mayfair and more sought after than Belgravia ?
This is, of course, but daring conjecture ; but what has been, may
well be again ; and if such a day does ever come, and books continue to
be read, as it is not improbable they still even then may be, the
equivalent to Macaulay's New Zealander will perhaps be glad to learn
something of the grandeur of these great houses, and will wonder at the
wealth and artistic beauty that was accumulated within them.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
PAGE
vii
IX
CHAP.
I. Past Citv Palaces
Devonshire House, Northampton House, Bridgewater House, Aylesbury
House, Albemarle House, Petre House, Thanet House, Westmoreland
House, Northumberland House, Shellty House, Lauderdale House,
Sharrington House, Crosby Place, Abergavenny House, Warwick
House, Brooke House, Southampton House, Hatton House, Winchester
House, Salisbury House.
II. Great Houses of the Strand .......
Essex House, Arundel House, Worcester House, Cecil House, York House,
Exeter House, Bedford House, Northumberland House.
III. Burlington House and Others .......
Burlington House, Clarendon House, Buckingham House, Montagu House
(Bloomsbury), Southampton or Bedford House.
IV. Leicester House, &c. .........
Leicester House, Drury or Craven House, Harcourt House, Monmouth
House, Ashburnham House, Marlborough House, Schomberg House,
Uxbridge House, Cambridge House, Melbourne House (The Albany),
Hertford House, Newcastle House.
V. Whitehall Houses .........
Richmond House, Pembroke House, Gwydyr House, Carrington House,
Portland House, Fife House, Dover House, Stanhope House, Rochester
House, Wallingford House, Ashburnham House (Westminster).
VI. Apsley House
VII. Bridgewater House
VIII. Chesterfield House
IX. Crewe House
X. Devonshire House
XI. Dorchester House
27
S8
95
136
170
189
207
221
231
249
xvi CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
XII. Grosvenor House 260
XIII. Lansdowne House 275
XIV. Londonderry House . 291
XV. Montagu House 299
XVI. Norfolk House 313
XVII. PoRTMAN House 324
XVIII. Spencer House 337
XIX. Stafford House 347
XX. WiMBORNE House 365
INDEX 373
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Chesterfield House, Mayfair
From a photogfaph by Messrs. BEriFOKD I^i!:MKKl!; & Co.
To jnce Title
Shaftesbury, FORMERLY Thanet, House, Aldersgate Street To face p. i
From an original drawing in the Grace Collection.
Ely House, afterwards Hatton House, Holborn
From an old print by R. GODFREY.
Arundel House, Strand .......
From a rare print by Hoix.XR, dated 1646.
Northumberland House, Charing Cross ....
From an old engraving.
Burlington House, Piccadilly ......
From a print by J. KiP, about 1700.
Clarendon House, Piccadilly ......
From a print by Wise,
Montagu House, Bloomseury ......
From a print by SUTTON NiCHOLLS.
Leicester House, Leicester Fields .....
From a drawing in tlie Crate Collection.
Marlborough House, from the Mall ....
From a print by John Harris.
View of Whitehall from St. James's Park
From a print by J. Kip.
Carrington House, Whitehall ......
Frojn a photograph taken shortly before its demolition, by t>\essrs. BEDFORD
Lemere & Co.
xvii
20
27
51
58
67
80
95
109
136
147
xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Grand Staircase, Carrington House . . . To face p. 148
From a photograph by Messrs. Bedford Lemere & Co.
The Waterloo Chamber, Apsley House ... „ 170
From a photograph by Mr. H. N. King.
The Piccadilly Room, Apslev House .... „ 180
From a photograph by Mr. H. N. King.
The Great Hall, Bridgewater House. ... ,,189
From a photograph by Mr. H. N, King.
Titian's "Diana and Calisto," in the Bridgewater
House Collection ....... » '95
From a photograph by Mr. F, HoLLYER.
" Men playing at Tric-trac," by Ostade, in the
Bridgewater House Collection .... „ 198
From a photograph by Mr. F. HoLLYER.
"View of the Maese near Dort," by Cuyp, in the
Bridgewater House Collection .... „ 202
From a photograph by Mr. F. HoLLYEK.
The Drawing-room, Chesterfield House ... „ 207
From a photograph by Messrs. BEDFORD Lemere & Co.
The Library, Chesterfield House . . . . „ 211
From a photograph by Messrs. Bedford Lemere & Co.
The Red Drawing-room, Crewe House . . . „ 221
From a photograph by Mr. R. HAINE.S.
The Ball-room, Devonshire House .... ,,231
From a photograph by Messrs. J. RUSSELL & Sons.
The Red Drawing-room, Devonshire House . . „ 242
From a photograph by Messrs. J. Russell cS; Sons.
The Grand Staircase, Dorchester House ... „ 249
Fro7n a photograph by Messrs. Bedford Lemere & Co.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xix
The Red Drawing-room, Dorchester House . . To face p. 254
From a p)wtograph by Messrs. REKl'dRD LicMERE & Co.
The Dining-room, Dorchester House .... „ 257
From a flwlograpit by Messrs. Bedford Lemeke & Co.
The Drawing-room, Grosvenor House .... » 260
From a photograph by Messrs. BEDFORD Lemere & Co.
The Rubens Room, Grosvenor House .... » 273
From a photograph by Messrs. Bedford Lemere & Co.
The Drawing-room, Lansdowne House ... „ 27s
From a photograph by Messrs. J. RussELL & SoN.S.
The Sculpture Gallery, Lansdowne House ... ,,281
From a photograph by Messrs. J. RUSSELL & Sons.
The Grand Staircase, Londonderry House ... „ 291
From a photograph by Mr. H. N. King.
The Drawing-room, Londonderry House ... „ 295
FroTii a photograph by Mr. H. N. King.
The Saloon, Montagu House » 299
From a photograph by Messrs. J. RussELL & Sons.
The Drawing-room, Montagu House .... „ 305
From a photograph by Messrs. J. Russell & Sons.
The Ball-room, Norfolk House ..... » 3^3
From a photograph by Messrs. Bedford Lemere & Co.
The Blue Drawing-room, Norfolk House ... „ 323
From a photograph by Messrs. BEDFORD LEMERE & Co.
Portman House, Portman Square ..... „ 324
From a photograph by Messrs. Bedford Lemere & Co.
The Saloon, Portman House ..... „ 335
From a photograph by Messrs. BEDFORD Lemere &. Co.
Spencer House (West Front) >, 337
From a photograph by Messrs. Bedford Lemere & Co.
XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Painted Room, Spencer House .... To face p. 342
From a photograph by Messrs. Bedfokd Lf.MERE & Co.
The Great Hall, Stafford House .... „ 347
From a photograph by Messrs. Bedford Lemere & Co.
The Great Gallery, Stafford House . . . , . „ 357
From a photograph by Messrs. BEDFORD Lemere & Co.
The Ball-room, Wimborne House .... „ 365
From a photograph by Messrs. BEDFORD Lemere & Co.
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2 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
the site of Devonshire House ; to say nothing of Lanesborough House,
where St. George's Hospital is now situated.
In Whitehall, where once clustered a number of fine private residences,
the magnificent but modern Montagu House is the only great mansion
which can be regarded in any way as a private palace ; Rutland, Richmond,
Portland, Pembroke, Carrington, Fife, Dover, Rochester, and Wallingford
Houses have all disappeared ; and Gwydwr House alone survives as the
headquarters of one of the Government offices.
Berkeley House, in Spring Gardens, is no more ; nor, if we turn our
steps to Bloomsbury, shall we find any trace of Southampton House, once
the glory of Bloomsbury Square, or of Montagu House which has long
been swallowed up in the vast buildings of the British Museum.
Chandos House in Cavendish Square, which indeed was never completed,
is as forgotten as Nineveh ; and all that remains of the vast conceptions of
the " Princely Chandos " are the two ends of the wings which he had
allocated to the use of his servants, one of which was once occupied by a
royal princess, and the other has now been metamorphosed into the
seemingly inevitable flats ; while Harcourt House, close by, has in our own
day been demolished in favour of the same class of dwellings.
Other instances might be given, as showing that the exigencies of build-
ing development have proved more hostile to the older houses of London
than many revolutions would probably have been.
Before I turn to some of those private palaces which are one of the
glories of London to-day, I shall say something in this chapter about the
great houses of the City which have passed away, and the associations that
still cluster round their memories.^
Let us begin with Devonshire House, in the City, which stood on
the site of the present Devonshire Square, the whole of the north side of
which was occupied by it and its ample gardens. It was erected by Jasper
Fisher, one of the six clerks in Chancery and a Justice of the Peace, who
appears to have built it probably in the earlier portion of Elizabeth's reign.
According to Stow, it was a large and beautiful house, with gardens of
pleasure, bowling alleys, and such-like ; and the seeming absurdity of a
man in Fisher's position building such an ostentatious dwelling appears
to have struck the populace, who called it in consequence, " Fisher's
Folly." Indeed it seems that Fisher ruined himself by this building, and
if he ever lived in the place, it could only have been for a relatively short
time, for Pennant mentions that a Mr. Cornwallis, and after him. Sir
Roger Manners occupied it, before it was taken by the Earl of Oxford,
' It need hardly be said that there is record of many fine houses in the City which cannot
be considered in the light of palaces, and therefore need not be specified.
DEVONSHIRE HOUSE 3
Lord High Chamberlain to Elizabeth, who once, at least, entertained the
Queen here, on the occasion of one of her visits to the City.
The seventeenth Earl of Oxford succeeded his father in August 1562,
and according to Machyn's Diary, on the 3rd of September, he rode to
London, and thence, by " Chepe and Ludgate, to Tempelle bare," which seems
to indicate that he had not then, at any rate, become possessed of Fisher's
mansion. Lord Oxford was held in high favour by Elizabeth, to whom
he is traditionally supposed to have presented the first pair of perfumed
gloves imported into this country. A passage in the Harleian MSS.
refers to him as " a man in minde and body, absolutely accomplished
with honourable endowments."
Although Pennant seems to indicate that Manners preceded Lord
Oxford in the occupation of the house. Stow gives him as residing here
after that peer. The matter is not, however, of great importance.
In the reign of James L the Earl of Argyle was living here, probably
having purchased the property after the death of Lord Oxford which
occurred in 1604. It is uncertain how long he retained it; but that he
was anxious to dispose of it in 1615, is proved by an entry in the East
India Company's Calendar for January loth, of that year, where it is
mentioned as being offered to the Company, but was found " unfit for
their service." Later the Marquis of Hamilton resided here, and when
he died, in March 1625, "his body was carried with much company
and torchlights to Fisher's Folly, his house without Bishopsgate."
Soon after the death of Lord Hamilton, the second Earl of Devonshire
bought the mansion, and died here, on June 20, 1628.' The house
seems to have remained in the Cavendish family till towards the end of
the seventeenth century, and in November 1660, we read of King Charles,
the Oueen, the Duke of York, and other members of the royal family
being entertained here by the old Countess of Devonshire, who died, at
a great age, in 1689, and whom Strype, writing in 1720, mentions as
dwelling here within his memory, " in great repute for her hospitality." "
During the Civil Wars and the Protectorate it is probable that the
family withdrew from the place, for the house, or more probably the
chapel attached to it, was converted into a Baptist and Presbyterian
meeting-house, in which connection it is mentioned by Butler in his
Hudibras. Its use as a centre of sectarianism was apparently continued
for some years after the Restoration, for not till 1670 was it suppressed
' The Cavendish family had been associated with this part of the town from the time of
Henry VIII. The wife of Thomas Cavendish, Treasurer of the Exchequer to the King, being
buried in St. Botolph's Church.
- .A. broadside ballad, called " The Entertainment of Lady Monk at Fisher's Folly," dated
1660, is extant.
4 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
under the " Act for the Suppression of Conventicles," when it was con-
verted into one of the places " appointed to be used every Lord's day for
the celebration of divine worship by approved orthodox ministers." Later,
at the close of the seventeenth century, when the Penny Post was started,
Mr. Murray contrived and set up his " Bank of Credit," at Devonshire
House, where men " depositing their goods and merchandize were furnished
with Bills of current credit, at two-thirds or three-fourths of the value of
said goods " ; which was apparently a sort of glorified pawnbroker's
business ! As in the case of so many old buildings in London
which idisappeared before the industrious J. T. Smith and others who
followed in his steps, carefully noted such matters, the date of the
demolition of Devonshire House is merely conjectural. It was probably
allowed to gradually fall into ruin and decay, and when finally pulled
down attracted only the notice of those specifically interested in the
ground on which it stood.
If little Is known about the fate of Devonshire House, still less is
recorded concerning that of Northampton House, once the town resi-
dence of the Earls of Northampton, which stood with its gardens on the
site of what is now Northampton Square, in Clerkenwell, where the present
Lord Northampton, who Is lord of the manor, possesses much valuable
property ; or of that of Bridgewater House, whose name Is alone
perpetuated in Bridgewater Square. Lord Bridgewater's mansion faced
the Barbican, and the grounds, extending northward, are marked by
Bridgewater Gardens (now known as Fann Street) ; the house itself
standing, according to Stow, where the Square, which has been much cut
up, once existed. The mansion was entered by a narrow way from the
Barbican, where It was situated rather east of Aldersgate Street. Its
buildings, in front of which was a courtyard, extended about 200 feet
east and west, and Its gardens behind had an area of about 250 by 150
feet, as may be seen In Ogilby's plan dated 1677.
The house was destroyed by fire in April 1687,1 and the two elder
sons of the third Earl who had only succeeded to the title in the previous
year, perished In the flames, together with their tutor who had endeavoured
to save their lives. Evelyn records that the orchards attached to the
gardens were celebrated for their productiveness, and during the Civil Wars
this was so much the case that the diarist accounts for it by the fact that
the scarcity of coal in the metropolis caused a corresponding decrease In
the volume of smoke ; a deduction which will rejoice the heart of Sir
William Richmond ! Evelyn adds, " The city of London resembles rather
the face of Etna, the court of Vulcan Stromboll, or the suburbs of hell,
^ Pennant erroneously gives the date as 1675.
ALBEMARLE HOUSE 5
than an assembly of rational creatures." ^ What would he have said of it
to-day ?
Aylesbury House, Clerkenwell, is another of the great private palaces
that have gone, nor " left a wrack behind." At one time the mansion and
its grounds, which extended from Clerkenwell Green, on the west side of
St. John's Street, southward for some 500 feet, belonged to the Knights of
St. John of Jerusalem ; but was later granted to the Bruces, Earls of
Aylesbury, the first of whom, who was created a peer in 1665, and held
many high offices, such as that of Deputy Earl Marshal, and Gentleman
of the Bedchamber, and was one of the twelve commoners deputed to
invite Charles II. to return to this country, dates many of his letters from
here, in 1671.
Close to Clerkenwell Green, was still standing in Pennant's time,
Albemarle or Newcastle House, the residence of the so-called " mad
duchess," widow of the second Duke of Albemarle who, in the Ellis
correspondence, is described as being "burnt to a coal with hot liquor,"
and last surviving daughter and co-heiress of Henry Cavendish, second
Duke of Newcastle, who died in it in 1734, at the age of ninety-six, and
of whom I shall have something more to say when speaking of Montagu
House, Bloomsbury.
Here, had previously lived, in great magnificence, that Duke of New-
castle, who is remembered not only as a patron of the men of genius of
his day, but more particularly by his elaborate work on horsemanship ;
and with him his second duchess, the Margaret of Newcastle who among
other books wrote the well-known life of her husband, and is enshrined
for all time in the eulogistic reference of Charles Lamb. Evelyn visited
the Duke and Duchess here, and in his Diary for April 18, 1667, one of
these occasions is recorded thus : " I went to make court to the Duke
and Duchess of Newcastle at their house in Clerkenwell, being newly
come out of the north. They received me with great kindnesse, and
I was much pleased with the extraordinary fanciful habit, garb, and
discourse of the Duchess."
After the death of the " mad duchess," Newcastle House was cut up
into small tenements, and its memory is alone preserved in Newcastle
Place and Newcastle Row which are situated near where it once stood.
There is a view of Newcastle House in Pink's History of Clerkenwell,^
and the author there states that George Monk, the first Duke of Albe-
marle, was living here in 1686, as is also evidenced by a letter addressed
' Evelyn's Fumiftigium.
''■ The view of the house referred to is taken from a curious drawing by Hollar, dated 1661.
6 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
to him here, by the Earl of Sunderland, in that year ; while Sir
John Bramston, in his Autobiography ^ mentions that he was with the
Duke at Newcastle House when this very communication arrived on
July 30th.
In Aldersgate Street quite a number of noble residences once existed ;
but you shall seek long enough nowadays for the least trace of any of
them. There was, for example, Petre House, once the town residence
of the heads of the ancient Petre family, who lived here from the middle
of the sixteenth century till the year 1639; after which, in 1657, it
belonged to Henry Pierrepoint, Marquis of Dorchester, who died in 1680.
Later still, in consequence of the destruction of the old palace near St.
Paul's, it was acquired by the See of London, and at least one bishop,
Henchman, died here, in 1675 ; upon which event it seems to have been
rented by Rawlinson, the non-juring Bishop of London.^
Close to Petre House, on the opposite side of the street, once stood
Thanet House, which occupied the east side of Aldersgate Street, about
600 feet south of the Barbican ; it was built round a courtyard, and had a
large square garden behind to the east, and took its name from the
Tuftons, Earls of Thanet, having been their town house ; while it was
known at a later date as Shaftesbury House when it became the residence
of the Earl of Shaftesbury. Lady Pembroke in her True Memorials mentions
the house in the following connection : " The 7 day of May, 1664, being
Saturdie, about 3 o'clock dyed my sonne-in-law, John Tufton, Earle of
Thanet, in his house called Thanet House, in Aldersgate Street at London,
in those lodgings that look towards the street which he had about 20 years
since built with freestone very magnificent." ' Pennant describes it as a
very fine old house, built about the time of Charles L, as well it might be
when we know that Inigo Jones designed it, and states that it was either
rented or purchased by Lord Shaftesbury, in the days of Charles II., who
desired to have a city residence so that he could the more readily inculcate
his incendiary principles among the citizens, of whom, it was his boast,
that he could raise ten thousand by holding up his finger. Fearing,
however, the detection of one of the many plots in which he was engaged,
he fled the country in 1683, and died in Holland, whither he had taken
refuge, although when in power he had never ceased advocating war
against that country. Pennant, a propos of this, gives a curious anecdote.
It appears that Shaftesbury always ended up his violent tirades against
the Dutch with the words, " Delenda est Carthago." Before flying to
Holland, he thought it wise to obtain specific permission to live there,
• There is a ground plan of this house in Wilkinson's Londina Illusirata.
^ There is an illustration extant, of which a reproduction is given here.
THANET HOUSE 7
and to that end applied to the Republic, the magistrates of which replied
in the following terms : " Carthago, non adhuc abolita, Comitem de
Shaftesbury in gremio suo recipere vult ! "
Thanet, or Shaftesbury House has another interest, for here, on his
return from the Continent, in 1679, John Locke resided under Lord
Shaftesbury's protection ; indeed he seems to have made it his head-
quarters until his lordship went to Holland ; while another interesting
figure is also connected with the house, for at least, on one occasion, the
Duke of Monmouth withdrew hither for concealment during the time
when he was plotting against the Crown.
Some years later — to be precise, in 1708 — the mansion was again in the
possession of the Thanet family, from which it may be surmised that it
had only been let to Lord Shaftesbury ; but it soon passed to other uses,
and in 1720 we find it converted into an inn — surely, considering its pro-
portions, more like a precursor of one of the elaborate hotels of our own
day, than the humble and generally exiguous hostelries of the eighteenth
century ! Fourteen years later it had become merely a tavern, while from
1750 to 1771, it was occupied by the London Lying-in Hospital, and two
views of it as such are given in Maitland's History of London, published
in 1756. Further vicissitudes awaited it, till, in 1882, it was finally
demolished, and Shaftesbury Hall and various shops were built on
its site.
Two other great mansions which also stood in Aldersgate Street were
Westmoreland House and Northumberland House ; the former,
which Pennant terms " a magnificent pile," was the town house of the
Earls of Westmoreland, and its name, after it had itself gone the way of
most of the stately residences of older London, survived in Westmoreland
Court ; the latter stood at the corner of Bull and Mouth Street, and was the
infrequent London resort of Hotspur.^ Henry IV., in the seventh year
of his reign gave it to his queen and it was, for a time, known as the
Queen's Wardrobe ; " its later history includes its conversion successively
into a printing-house and a tavern — to such base uses come the noblest
piles !
Another house in this quarter, dating from about the same remote
period, was Shelley House, erected by Sir Thomas Shelley in the first year
of Henry IV. 's reign, but rebuilt by Sir Nicholas Bacon in the time of
^ Another Northumberland House stood near Seething Lane, and was occupied by
Hotspur's father, that Earl of Northumberland who once sent a challenge to Henry IV. In the
reign of Henry VI. the two Earls, father and son, who were killed respectively at St. Albans
and Towton, occupied it, and later it became a gaming-house, one of the first in London,
according to Stow, who calls it "their ancient and only patron of misrule."
- Stow.
8 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Elizabeth, when it was known as Bacon House. According to Mr.
Wheatley, it seems to have been inhabited jointly by the Bacon family and
by Recorder Fleetwood, the friend and correspondent of Lord Burghley,
and in one of his letters, dated July 21, 1578, he mentions that "my
Lord Keeper (Bacon), my Ladie, and all the house are come to London
this night." But Stow seems to indicate that Fleetwood possessed
another and quite separate residence.^
Lauderdale House was also one of the great city mansions of which
all traces have disappeared. It stood on the east side of the north end of
Aldersgate Street, between Crown and Hare Courts, or Nos. 51 and 6^
of the present street, and, as its name implies, was the town residence of
the Duke of Lauderdale, the "L" of the famous "Cabal" Ministry.
According to the views of it by Tompkins, preserved in the Crowle
Pennant, it appears to have stood back from the street and to have been
built of red brick ; and one of the illustrations represents a room on the
second floor, in which can be seen the Lauderdale arms carved on the
chimneypiece.
In Mark Lane, close by, was another " magnificent house," according
to Strype, that of Sir William Sharrington, chief oflicer of the Mint - under
Edward VI., and a tool of the ambitious Thomas Seymour, with whom
he fell and was attainted. Sharrington House was then given to
Henry Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel, "being thought a fit habitation for
that great peer on account of its size and splendour" ; ^ but its later history
is hidden in obscurity, as is the record of that once famous Worcester Place,
near Vintner's Hall, in Upper Thames Street, where lived the enlightened
though cruel John Tiptoff, Earl of Worcester, Lord High Treasurer of
England, which Stow mentions as being, in his time, divided into many
tenements.
Practically all vestiges of the houses of old London have passed away ;
nothing but their names survive in the pages of the earlier chronicles of
the great city to indicate their former existence and " to point where the
fabric stood " ; those I have mentioned are eloquent of this ; some I shall
presently notice in this chapter, no less bear out the remark, for if the
name of a street or a square perpetuates their one-time existence, it is as
much as we can obtain in elucidation of their former approximate positions ;
but before passing to these, there is one notable exception in Crosby Place,
the Great Hall of which has only just been swept out of being.
^ Stow, p. 291.
2 Walpole conjectures that the lightness observable in the coins of Edward VI. was due to
Sharrington's embezzlements. A portrait of Sir William, by Holbein, is noted by Walpole as
being at Kensington Palace.
^ Pennant.
CROSBY PLACE 9
As to the merits of the controversy that has been recently raging over
this splendid relic I need not enter at any great length here ; nor, unfor-
tunately, has it any longer power to materially interest us. The harm is
done ; the once splendid and interesting landmark has disappeared, and
commercialism, as usual, has emerged triumphant ; but in a book dealing
partly v/ith the old houses of London, it may be expected that I should
say a few words about a matter that six people consider the natural out-
come of modern requirements, and half-a-dozen regard as nothing short
of iconoclastic vandalism.
There is no doubt that when our own individual pockets are not in
danger of being touched, we can all wax virtuously indignant against those
who are not ready to sacrifice immense sums (for any preservation in
London nowadays almost inevitably means this) on the altar of what one
may term antiquarian patriotism ; but what does to me seem, I confess, an
astounding anomaly, is that a City which is proverbially the richest in the
world should not itself be in a position to rescue some of these disappear-
ing landmarks without which it will soon come to lose all interest other
than as a hive where so many bees are perpetually turning out so much
honey.
We all know what happens when some old building, historically
valuable and interesting, is threatened with demolition ; people who live
laborious days in efforts of preservation and restoration hold meetings ;
others who sympathise in such aims and are not perhaps averse, in such
good causes, from seeing their names at the foot of long letters in the daily
press, write to the papers ; sometimes the Mansion House oracle is invoked,
and all goes merrily, what time the value of the property is being, perhaps
unconsciously, enhanced, and the owners very properly are sitting quietly
and saying nothing, but are probably filled with not unpleasant thoughts.
At length something tangible is put forward, generally, by-the-bye, so late
in the day, that some one else is already in the field with a bundle of
bank-notes in one hand and in the other the ground-plan and elevation
of a block of flats. And then it is that the price named is found to be
naturally enough a large one, such a large one, indeed, as can only be
possible to purchasers who are able to turn their speculation into a
reasonable profit — and then .'' — why then all and sundry are asked to
contribute, and the names of prominent millionaires are bandied about,
and the readers of newspapers feel it a positive grievance that one of
these plutocrats does not come forward and present the relic to an
admiring, and, the next day, a forgetful country.
And those who by prescriptive right should, if any one should, take
the burden on their own shoulders, have so often in the past been helped
lo THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
by the altruism of rich men (in the purchase of pictures for the nation
there is no end to this generosity), that they apparently feel safe in risking
the loss of a landmark, hoping that at the last minute such generosity will
be repeated.
The loss of Crosby Hall seems to me a national loss, not only in so
much weight of antiquated bricks and mortar, so much petrified tradition,
as it were ; but in the fact that this great city, rich as not Rome in its
glory was rich, is yet not so rich but that a relatively insignificant space in
its vast area can be wrested from it, and that its inability to save one of its
most cherished buildings, is made patent to the world.
Shakespeare who, at one time, lived close by, has done more, perhaps,
than all the topographers ^ who have written on it, to make Crosby Place
famous, and it is probable that had he not laid some of the scenes of his
Richard III. here, the connection of that sinister figure, although histori-
cally indisputable, with the place, would have come down to us in the
hazy manner which makes such associations dear to antiquaries and almost
unknown of the general public.
From certain excavations made in 1871 and 1873, the discovery of
some tessellated pavements lead to the supposition that a Roman villa
stood on the site of Crosby Place which was erected in 1466, on ground
leased from Alice Ashfield, Prioress of St. Helens, for a term of ninety-
nine years, at the annual rent of ^11, 6s. 8d., by Sir John Crosby.
Sir John is known to have been an alderman, and one of the Sheriffs of
London in 147 1, in which year he was knighted by Edward IV., but he
died four years later, which caused Stow to write: "So short a time
enjoyed he that large and sumptuous building." He was buried in the
church of St. Helens, to which he had been a liberal benefactor,^ where a
monument to him and his wife (who died in 1466) was erected on the
south side of the chancel. The house, built by Sir John, was of stone
and timber, and, according to Stow, was not only very large and beautiful,
but was also " the highest at that time in London."
It is a little obscure under what conditions the Duke of Gloucester
obtained the place, but that he was here in 1483, we have good authority
for knowing, and while here he determined on the murder of his brother
the Duke of Clarence. Shakespeare makes a room in the Palace, the scene
of his interview with the murderers, to whom he says: "When you have
' In the Gc7itlemaii's Magazine, London Topography, vol. i., there is an article on Crosby
Place; the Rev. T. Hugo's paper on 11(1856) is printed in the Transactions of the London
Archceological Society, and it is dealt with in every history of London ; while a small book
(by Mr. C. W. F. Goss) on it has recently appeared.
" The Churches of London, by Godwin and Britton, 1S39.
CROSBY PLACE ii
done, repair to Crosby Place ; " and it will be remembered that after he has
so strangely wooed and won the Lady Anne, Gloucester asks her " to
presently repair to Crosby Place " ; while after his interview with Catesby
whom he directs to sound Lord Hastings in reference to his own designs
on the the throne, he says, " At Crosby Hall there shall you find us
both," meaning himself and his Fidus Achates, Buckingham. Here, too,
in the Great Hall Richard was acclaimed as king at that carefully packed
meeting, the spirited representation of which may be seen in Mr. Sigisimund
Goetze's mural painting in the Royal Exchange.
The next owner of the mansion was Sir Bartholomew Read, who
occupied it during his year of office as Lord Mayor, in 1501 ; and he
was succeeded in its tenancy by Sir John Best, who subsequently sold it to
Sir Thomas More, probably about 15 14 or the following year.
By a curious coincidence, or perhaps the fact was due to his residence
in a place identified with the usurper, Sir Thomas More, wrote here his
Life of Richard III., and if the date of his first occupation of the place
is correctly assumed as being 1514 or 1515, then it is probable that he
also wrote his Utopia within its walls, that famous book being first
published in 15 16. Two years later More was made Master of Bequests
and Privy Counsellor by Henry VIII., and there seems no reasonable doubt
but that the King, with whom at this period he was in high favour, must have
visited him here. Five years later (1523) More, who was then Speaker
of the House of Commons, sold Crosby Place to his friend Bonsevi, or as
Stow calls him Bonvice, who some years later leased it to More's son-in-
law, William Roper, and also to his nephew William Rastell, but whether
these two occupied it jointly or successively, is not clear ; however in the
following reign they, together with their landlord, were driven abroad on
account of religious persecution, and Crosby Place was therefore forfeited
to the Crown ; under Mary, however, it was restored to Bonsevi.
The next possessor of the mansion was that Jeremiah (Stow calls him
Germain) Croll who married a cousin of Sir Thomas Gresham, and
who continued to reside here till 1566, when Alderman Bond, the most
famous merchant adventurer of the day, who died in 1576, and was buried
in St. Helens, purchased it for /^ijoo; while in his possession, his
Excellency, Henry Ramelius, Chancellor of Denmark, who came, as
Ambassador to this country in 1586, was lodged here; a circumstance
that seems to have set the fashion of "putting up" illustrious foreigners
here, probably on account of the beauty and size of the house ; for it
having been again sold in 1594, to Sir John Spencer, who gave £1^60
for it, a succession of envoys occupied it temporarily ; the Due de Sully,
in 1594; the Due de Biron, in 1601 ; M. de Rosney, who was entertained
12 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
here by Sir John Spencer, in 1603;^ and the Russian Ambassador, in
161 8. In connection with the Due de Biron's stay here, a letter from the
Lord Mayor to the Lords of the Council is extant, acknowledging the
receipt of their letter, enclosing a petition from the upholsterers and others
for an allowance for furnishing the Duke Byron (sic) and his train with
stuffs, saddles, &c., and requesting them to excuse the City from this
service, as they were hardly pressed for payment of the money demands
made upon them in the service of the State.'
Sir John Spencer, who was one of those knighted on the occasion of
Queen Mary's accession, was known as "rich Spencer" from the amount
of his wealth, which is said to have approached a million sterling, an
enormous sum in those days; he was Lord Mayor of London in 1594,
in anticipation of which event probably he purchased Crosby Place earlier
in that year. Under Spencer the mansion flourished exceedingly, for he
not only enlarged and beautified it, adding " a most large warehouse near
thereunto," but also kept open house here for a number of years. As
Sir John had no son, his daughter was heiress to his immense wealth ;
but in the very year of her father's mayoralty, she eloped, it is said in a
baker's basket carried on the shoulders of her lover,^ with Lord Compton,
from Canonbury Tower, which Sir John had bought from Thomas, Lord
Wentworth, in 1570; and which he used as a suburban residence. The
father was furious, and determined to disinherit his wilful offspring. In
this emergency the young couple besought the Queen's intercession, when
her Majesty, who always had a soft heart for such escapades, hit on the
following expedient to reconcile father and daughter. She invited, in
1 60 1, Sir John to be fellow-sponsor with her, at the christening of a boy,
who, she said, was the firstborn of a young couple who had married for
love. The old man replied that as he had now no heir he should like to
adopt the child, whereupon, at the ceremony, the Queen bestowed the
name of Spencer on the infant, and afterwards informed Sir John that he
had stood godfather, and had promised to adopt, his own grandson ;
whereupon reconciliation, joy, and gladness,!*
Sir John continued to reside at Crosby Place till his death, in March
1609, when a remarkable funeral took place, the details of which are
preserved in a letter from Mr. Beaulieu to Mr. Trumbull, dated the
22nd of the same month. ^ "Upon Tuesdav the funerals of Sir John
' See note in Nichol's Progresses 0/ James /., vol. i. pp. 1 59-60. ' Reinembrancia, p. 409.
' Agnes Strickland says this occurred in the thirty-sixth year of Elizabeth's reign, but
Doyle, in his official Baronage, gives the date of the marriage as June 14, 1600.
■■ Histories of Noble British Families, by Henry Drummond.
'^ Winwood's Memorials of State, vol. i. p. 136 ; also Sir Egerton Brydges' Memoirs of
the Peers of England, pp. 460-61.
CROSBY PLACE 13
Spencer were made, where some thousand men did assist, in mourning
cloaks and gowns," writes Beaulieu, " amongst which were 320 poor
men, who had every one a basket given them, stored with the particular
provision set down in this note enclosed, e.g.^ a black gown, four pounds
of beef, two loaves of bread, a little bottle of wine, a candlestick, a
pound of candles, two saucers, two spoons, a black pudding, a pair of
gloves, a dozen of points, two red herrings, four white herrings, six
sprats, and two eggs ; but to expound to you the mystical meaning of
such an antic furniture, I am not so skilful as CEdipus, except it
doth design the horn of abundance, which my Lord Compton hath found
in that succession."
The correspondent goes on to indicate that the accession to such
enormous wealth as Sir John had left, was at first likely to have unhinged
Lord Compton's mind, and he speaks of him as having fallen into "a
phrenzy " ; this must, however, have soon passed off, for we find him in
the following year holding responsible office ; but scandal of a graver sort
was rife, for it was asserted, apparently with no proof, " that he hath
suppressed a will of the deceased's whereby he did bequeath some ;/^2o,00O
to his poor kindred, and as much in pious uses."
Lady Spencer (her maiden name was Alice Bromfield) died just a year
after her husband, and as she distributed between £1^,000 and ;^ 15,000
amongst her friends, Lord Compton appears again to have become dis-
tracted, and this time the matter was so serious that Mr. Beaulieu ^ states
that "the administration of his goods and lands is committed to the Lords
Chamberlain, Privy Seal, and Worcester ; who, coming the last week into
the City, took an inventory, in the presence of the Sheriffs, of the goods
(in Crosby Place), amongst which, it is said, there were bonds found for
;^i33,ooo."'^ However, Lord Compton again recovered from the effects
of too much wealth, as in 161 7, we find him created Lord President
of Wales.
During the tenancy of Crosby Place by Lord Compton, who was
created Earl of Northampton, in 161 8, the Countess of Pembroke, cele-
brated in Ben Jonson's famous epitaph, and well known for her love of
literature and her patronage of literary men, resided for some time here,
notably in 1609, although her death, which occurred on September 25,
1 62 I, took place at " her house in Aldersgate Street." Nine years later,
the 1st Earl of Northampton also died, not here, but at his lodgings in
^ In a letter dated March 29, 1610.
° In a scarce little work entitled The V'atiity of the Lives and Passions of lilen, by
David Papillon, 1651, it is stated that there was once a plot concocted by a Dunkirk
pirate to carry Sir John Spencer to France, for the sake of the ransom it was hoped to
secure. It was currently reported that Spencer died worth ^8oo,<x)o.
14 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
the Savoy, under tragically sudden circumstances, thus related in a con-
temporary letter,^ dated July 2, 1630 : " Yesterday sevennight, the Earl
of Northampton, after he had waited on the King at supper, and had also
supped, went in a boat with others to wash himself in the Thames, and
so soon as his legs were in the water but to the knees, he had the colic,
and cried out, ' Have me into the boat again, for I am a dead man ' ; and
died a few hours after."
He was succeeded by his only son Spencer, whose advent into the
world, as we have seen, brought about the reconciliation between Sir John
Spencer and his daughter and son-in-law. He was a fine linguist and
an accomplished courtier, and Clarendon calls him " a person of great
courage, honour, and fidelity." Having an intimate knowledge of court
ceremonial, he was, as we know from the diary of Sir John Finett, Master
of the Ceremonies, frequently employed in the introduction of foreign
envoys to the King whom, by-the-bye, he had, as Master of the Rolls,
accompaned to Spain in 1623, when the Spanish match was on the tapis.
He continued to reside at Crosby Place till within a few years of his death,
which occurred at the battle of Hopton Heath, in 1643. But five years
before that event the mansion was in the hands of the East India Company,
who probably rented it, as its annual value was then stated to be ;^ioo.^
Later it was leased to Sir John Langham, Sheriff of London, in 1642 ;
and during the Civil Wars it was used as a house of detention for political
prisoners ; Sir Kenelm Digby, Sir John Jacob, and Sir George Whitmore
being among those incarcerated here for refusing to contribute money for
the service of the Parliament.
Sir John Langham's son, Sir Stephen Langham, subsequently continued
to occupy it ; and it was during his time that a great fire broke out here
which so seriously damaged the mansion that it was never afterwards occu-
pied as a private residence. Under Charles 11.^ the Great Hall was used as
one of those meeting-places of sectarianism that sprang up all over London,*
and the congregation continued to meet here till 1769, when it removed
to Southwark. About one hundred years previously the houses in Crosby
Square had been built on the ruins of that portion of the mansion
destroyed by fire ; and the magnificent hall practically alone remained to
indicate the stateliness of the original building. This Great Hall has been
^ Given in Peck's Desiderata Ctiriosa.
^ MS. preserved in Lambeth Palace ; quoted in London Past and Present.
^ From 1678 to 16S7 " The grand office of the Penny Post" was held here ; and in 1700
the East India Company occupied again a portion of the Great Hall for a year or two.
Londo7i Past and Present.
* As early as 1618 we find Sir Robert Naunton writing to the Lord Mayor and stating,
inter alia, that the Council had heard of a " confluence of loose people about Crosby House
upon a Conventicle of anabaptists there assembled." Remembrancia, p. 453.
CROSBY PLACE 15
desecrated beyond all example. It was used as a packer's warehouse from
1 810 to 1 83 1, during which period its then proprietor, Mr. Strickland
Freeman, removed all the stonework pillars and ornamental masonry of
the council chamber to his seat at Henley, and says Allen,^ " with the
most barbarous taste erected a dairy with them ! " The twelfth Duke of
Norfolk made better use of the opportunities that then presented them-
selves, for he was so delighted with the beauty of the roof that he had
drawings made of it, and built the banqueting-room at Arundel on its
model. There is no doubt but that, at about this time, much of antiquarian
and historical value as regards the fabric, was removed by enthusiastic
collectors who found it was not difficult to persuade the ignorant
custodians of the place to part with many relics.
When the lease of the packing firm ran out, public attention was
directed to the state of the Great Hall and what little remained of other
parts of the once stately mansion, with the happy result that the interior
was carefully restored and the frontage to Great St. Helens rebuilt ; the
Bishopsgate Street front, although erected in the old style, formed but a
magnificent forgery, as it was no part of the original building. The first
stone of the new work was laid in 1836, and six years later the Hall was
reopened by the Lord Mayor.
In the same year it was leased to what was thereupon termed the
Crosby Hall Literary Institute, and when this ceased to exist in i860, the
Great Hall was used as a wine merchant's warehouse. In 1868 it was
converted into a restaurant, in which capacity we all remember it ; and
hurrying waiters attended to the wants of city clerks, on the spot where
once the great Sir Thomas More had sat ; where the crown of England
had been offered to the Duke of Gloucester; and where "Sidney's sister,
Pembroke's mother," had surrounded herself with, perhaps, the first
literary salon ever held in this country. And now " glorious Crosby
Hall," as Baron Bunsen called it, so far as the city is concerned, is as much
a thing of the past as Troy or Babylon !
In very early days many of the houses of the nobles of the time were
called " Inns " ; thus at the end of Silver Street, once stood Neville's Inn,
the town house of John, Lord Neville, in the reign of Edward III., which,
in Henry IV. 's reign, passed to Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland,
and in 1558, became the property of Lord Windsor, being then called
Windsor Place ; while in Warwick Lane was situated the inn or house of
the Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick, from whence the street took its name.
This house was once the residence of the king-maker, and to show that
' History of London, vol. iii. p. 156.
1 6 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
the place was capable of sustaining and lodging the almost princely retinue
that usually attended that great man, we have Stow's description of his
coming hither in 1458, "with 600 men all in red jackets embroidered,
with ragged staves before and behind," who were lodged in Warwick Inn,
where "there was often six oxen eaten at a breakfast, and every taverne
was full of his meate ; -^ for hee that had any acquaintance in that house,
might have there so much of sodden and roaste meate, as he could pricke
and carry upon a long dagger."
Another branch of the great family of Nevills, had their town house
in the heart of the city, which was known as Abergavenny or Burgaveny
House, at the north end of Ave Maria Lane, and was the residence of
Henry Nevill, fourth Baron Abergavenny, who was one of the Com-
missioners appointed to preside at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, in
1586, and who died two years later. According to Stow the great house
" builded of stone and timber," originally belonged to John de Bretagne,
who had been created Earl of Richmond by Edward I., and who died in
1334. Later the place was known as Pembroke Inn," having passed into
the possession of the Earl of Pembroke, of the Hastings line, in the reign
of Edward II., and was eventually the town residence of that John de
Hastings, who married Margaret, youngest daughter of Edward III., as
well as of his son, another John de Hastings, the third Earl of Pembroke,
who died in 1389, having married Elizabeth, daughter of John, Duke of
Lancaster ; so that Pembroke Inn had at one time almost a claim to be
considered a royal residence. If, indeed. Stow is correct in stating that
it was also the house of the Earl of Pembroke in the fourteenth year of
Henry VI. 's reign, then it actually was a royal palace for a time, for the
Earldom of Pembroke had been bestowed, in 14 14, on the celebrated Duke
Humphrey, fourth son of Henry IV., who died in 1446; and with the
earldom went, almost as a matter of course, the property, including the
London house.
It appears to have come later into the hands of Sir Nicholas Bacon, for
Mr. Wheatley quotes from a letter of his to Matthew Parker, afterwards
Archbishop, dated 1558, in which he asks the latter to come and see him
"at Burgeny House in Paternoster Row." In 1611, the property was
purchased by the Stationers' Company, which had been incorporated in
1557, for use as their hall; and they enlarged and otherwise brought it
up to date to suit the requirements of the headquarters of a great City
Company ; it was, however, destroyed in the Great Fire, and the present
hall erected on its site in 1670.
■■ Meaning that the taverns around were keeping supplies ready for the Earl.
2 Stow.
WARWICK HOUSE ly
Warwick Court, nearly opposite Chancery Lane, in Holborn, preserves
the memory, if nothing else, of a mansion that formerly stood on its site,
known as Warwick House, the residence of the Earls of Warwick, but
which from a passage in a lease of some ground adjoining granted by the
Corporation of Gray's Inn to Charles, Earl of Warwick, in 1665, and
quoted in Douthwaite's History of Grays Inn, is shown to have been
originally known as Allington House, the residence of Mrs. Allington.
Warwick House is one of those that I cannot claim, from ignorance of
its size, &c., as a private palace, but, inasmuch as it was the home of the
Earl of Warwick, who fought on the Parliamentary side during the Civil
Wars, and was in every respect a remarkable man, I think its inclusion
here may be in some sort justified.
Lady Warwick died here on January 16, 1646, and was buried in the
church of St. Lawrence, near the Guildhall. Later Pepys dined here
on one occasion (March 3, 1660) with Lord Sandwich, the Earl of
Manchester, Lord Fiennes, Lord Berkeley, and Sir Dudley North ; and
from the passage in the Diary where the event is recorded, I gather that
the place then belonged to the Earl of Manchester ; while a curious
circumstance proves it later to have been the residence of Lord Clare,
for Burnet relates how William, Lord Russell, on his way to execution,
passed the house, and " observing all shut up there, asked if my Lord
Clare was out of town," to which the Bishop replied that " he could not
think any windows would be open there on this occasion." ^
Another mansion that stood somewhat to the east of Warwick House
was Brooke House, which immediately adjoined Furnival's Inn to the west,
about 120 feet from Gray's Inn Road, the memory of which is preserved
in Brooke Street and Greville Street, which run through the site of the
house and its gardens which extended at the back of the buildings."
Brooke House was originally known as Bath House, having been,
according to Stow, "of late for the most part new built" (which seems to
indicate an earlier owner still of whom all trace is lost), by William
Bourchier, Earl of Bath, who married Elizabeth, daughter of the second
Earl of Bedford, in 1583, and died on July 12, 1623.^ ^^ was afterwards
in the possession of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, the " brave gentleman "
mentioned by Sir Robert Naunton in his Fragmenta Regalia, and who
was also described as " servant to Queen Elizabeth, counsellor to King
' Quoted in London Past and Prcstnt.
- Those curious in such matters can locate the various old houses of London with the help
of Ogilby's splendid plan of 1677, where they are clearly indicated in many instances.
^ Nicholas Stone, however, records, in his diary for the year 1622, making "a diall for my
Lord Brooke in Holbourn, for the which I had ^8, los.," which seems to indicate that Lord
Brooke had acquired the house before Lord Bath's death.
1 8 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
James, and friend to Sir Philip Sidney." After holding a number of
important offices under two sovereigns, and being on intimate terms of
friendship with them both, besides sustaining an unblemished character
during a peculiarly difficult period for preserving one. Lord Brooke fell a
victim to one of his own servants, who assassinated him at Brooke House,
on September 30, 1628.
Two years later the mansion was prepared, at the expense of the
Crown, for the reception of the French Ambassador, probably by some
arrangement with Lord Brooke's executors ; but, in any case, it seems
never afterwards to have been occupied by the Greville family. Among
later events connected with it, the christening of Sir Arthur Haslerigge's
infant daughter in 1635, ^"^ ^^e lodging here of the French Ambassadors,
"where they were entertained at the charge of His Highness," in 1658,
are recorded, as is the sitting here of the " Brooke House Committee,"
which had been appointed, in 1668, to examine into the expenditure of
certain moneys granted by Parliament to Charles II. for the ostensible
purpose of prosecuting the war with Holland, but which seem, as was not
then unusual, to have been employed by his Majesty in more peaceful pro-
jects. We find Pepys, on December i8th, wending his way thither, and
carrying with him by order, the " Contract-books, from the beginning to
the end of the late war." "I found him" (Colonel Thomson), says the
Diarist, " finding of errors in a ship's book, where he showed me many,
which must end in the ruin, I doubt, of the Comptroller."
This was not Pepys's earliest visit here, however, for on the preceding
3rd of July, he writes that he attended here for the first time on that day,
and remained long with the Commissioners and found them " hot set on
the matter," but he adds, "I did give them proper and safe answers."
Burnet tells us how deeply Charles felt this "Brooke House business"
which he " resolved to revenge."
With these data^ the short history of Brooke House comes to an abrupt
termination. It is probable that, like so many other fine houses, it gradually
fell into decay and was after a time used for commercial purposes before
being altogether demolished.
If there be any doubt about the importance of Warwick House, or
Brooke House, there seems to be little regarding two other mansions which
once stood in Holborn ; Southampton House and Hatton House.
The former was the home of the great family of the Wriothesleys,
Earls of Southampton, and the industrious Stow gives a resume of its
history in the following words : —
" Beyond the bars (Holborn Bars) had ye in old time a Temple built
SOUTHAMPTON HOUSE 19
by the Templars, whose order first began in 1 1 1 8, in the 1 9th of Henry I.
This Temple was left and fell to ruin since the year 11 84, when the
Templars had built them a new Temple in Fleet Street, near to the river
of Thames. A great part of this old Temple was pulled down but of late
in the year 1595. Adjoining to this old Temple was some time the Bishop
of Lincoln's Inn, wherein he lodged when he repaired to this City. Robert
de Curars, Bishop of Lincoln, built it about the year 1147. John Russell,
Bishop of Lincoln, Chancellor of England in the reign of Richard III., was
lodged there. It hath of late years belonged to the Earls of Southampton,
and therefore called Southampton House. Master Ropar hath of late
built much there ; by means whereof part of the ruins of the old Temple
were seen to remain, built of Caen stone, round in form as the new Temple
at Temple Bar."
This extract shows us that there was an adventitious interest attached
to the great house, in that it was practically erected on the foundations of
the Templars' earlier structure, some remains of which were shown to Mr.
Cunningham by a Mr. Griffith in 1847, notably the walls and flat-timbered
roof of what was called the " chapel " of the house.
According to Strype, the mansion was conveyed in fee to Lord
Southampton, who was Lord Chancellor in the reign of Henry VIII.
and Edward VI., and who was created an Earl by the latter monarch,
at whose coronation he bore the sword of state. Lord Southampton
died in 1550, and was succeeded by his son Henry, who married Mary,
daughter of the first Viscount Montagu, and died in 1581. His second
son, who inherited the titles and estates, was attainted in 1601, for
complicity in Lord Essex's plot. He was the friend and patron of
Shakespeare, who, as all the world knows, dedicated his Venus ajid Adonis
to him, and was not improbably a frequent guest at Southampton House.
An earlier plot, well known as Babington's, which had for its object the
murder of Elizabeth, the release of Mary Queen of Scots, and a general
rising of the Roman Catholics, was partly concocted within the walls of
Southampton House, where the conspirators were accustomed to meet to
mature their nefarious plans.
On the accession of James I., the dignities that Lord Southampton had
forfeited by attainder, were restored to the Earl ; and in the Calendar of
State Papers is a record of a Bill, which James ordered to be prepared,
confirming certain privileges to him, as well as extending " the liberties
of Southampton House from Holborn Bars to the Rolls in Chancery
Lane." The Earl died in 1624, and was succeeded by his second son,
whom Clarendon describes as " in his nature melancholick and reserved in
conversation." He apparently fell somewhat on bad times financially, for he
20 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
is said to have asked the permission of Charles I. to pull down Southampton
House and to build tenements on its site, " which would have been much
advantage to him, and his fortune hath need of some helps " ; ^ but
though the King brought the petition before his Council, and recommended
its being agreed to, " telling their lordships that my Lord of Southampton
was a person whom he much respected," the petition was dismissed.
During the Civil Wars a well is said to have been found by a soldier
near this mansion, which had the power to heal the blind and the lame !
What it could not do was to save the old house from the destruction
which took place three or four years after the discovery of the well's
singular properties, although fragments of the structure were in existence
as late as 1850.°
Hatton House stood nearly opposite St. Andrew's Church, on the
site of Ely House or Inn, once the residence of the powerful Bishops of
Ely,^ where in 1399 "Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster,"
breathed his last, and referred to, it will be remembered, in that passage in
Richard III., where the usurper beseeches the Bishop to send for some of
the strawberries growing in his garden there. The history of Ely Place
need not detain us here however;* pass we therefore to the year 1576,
when Sir Christopher Hatton, Oueen Elizabeth's " dancing Chancellor" and
intimate friend, obtained a twenty-one years' lease of the gate-house and
some portions of the buildings in the outer courtyard, together with the
garden and orchard adjoining. The conditions of the lease would seem
curious and anything but exacting so far as the rent was concerned, for
this consisted merely of "a red rose, ten loads of hay, and £10 per
annum," did we not know that royal pressure had been brought to bear
on Cox, then the Bishop, who, however, as some set ofF-for his sacrifice
was allowed the privilege for himself and his successors of walking in the
garden and culling therefrom twenty bushels of roses yearly. The
peremptory letter sent by Elizabeth to Cox to enforce these terms has
been long considered a forgery, although quoted by Agnes Strickland, but
its phrasing : " Proud Prelate, you know what you were before I made
you what you are ; if you do not immediately comply with my request, by
God ! I will unfrock you," is highly characteristic of Elizabeth's drastic
methods of persuasion.
^ Letter of Gerrard to Lord Stafford, March 23, 1636.
'^ Archer, in his I'es/iges of Old London, mentions, and gives a drawing of, an old staircase
once in Southampton House, and says that other remains such as cornices and mouldings
were in the Blue Posts Tavern. For the later Southampton House, see chapter iii.
^ For an interesting account of old Ely Place, see Brayley's Londiniana, vol. i. pp. 223-231.
* It is not within my scheme to mention the old Episcopal palaces in London, which can
hardly be considered in the light of private dvk-ellings.
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HATTON HOUSE 21
On part of the grounds, which consisted of " an irregular parallelo-
gram, extending north-west from Holborn Hill to the present Hatton
Wall and Vine Street, and east and west from Saffron Hill to nearly the
present Leather Lane," ^ Sir Christopher erected a stately pleasure-house
for himself, although Ely Place itself appears still to have been used for
Episcopal purposes.
There is little doubt but that the Queen must frequently have visited
her minister at Hatton House, as we know from Lord Talbot's testimony
that when he was once ill, before he had come to reside here, she went to
see him daily. Hatton died here on November 20, 1591, and according
to Stow, was buried in St. Paul's " under a most sumptuous monument."
He had long been suffering from an incurable disease, but at the time
popular imagination traced the cause of his death to grief occasioned by
Elizabeth's peremptory demand for repayment of the jT 40,000 ^ he is said to
have owed the Crown ; if this was an aggravating cause of his illness,
her Majesty seems to have repented of her severity, for she frequently
went to see her dying favourite, and as one of her biographers ^ says,
" endeavoured by her gracious and soothing speeches to revive his failing
spirits."
After Sir Christopher's death, his widow, on whom the property had been
settled, continued to reside here ; and when she subsequently married and
quarrelled with Sir Edward Coke, the great lawyer, she succeeded in pre-
venting him from entering the place. They fought desperately over the
custody of their only daughter, first one and then the other gaining
possession of her, until at last James I. had to personally interfere to put
an end to the scandal. Buckingham was anxious to secure the young lady
and her money, she being a great heiress, for his brother Sir John Villiers,
and Sir Edward Coke seems to have favoured the project, to which, as a
matter of course. Lady Hatton objected ; but when the match did take place,
and a great entertainment was given at Hatton House in its celebration.
Lady Hatton, whose objection had probably been overcome by the King's
persuasive arguments, succeeded in preventing her husband from taking part
in it. Nor was he present at a subsequent great feast given at Hatton
House, to James and his court, in November 161 7, when the King was in
such merry mood, that besides drinking his hostess's health at very
frequent intervals, he gave her, on taking his leave, half-a-dozen kisses,
and knighted four of her friends.
The wily Ambassador of Spain, the Conde de Gondemar, was renting
]| Brayley.
" The Diary of Walter Yonge contains an interesting reference to the subsequent circum-
stances attending this loan in 1616. 3 Lucy .A.ikin.
22 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Ely Place about this time, and though he did all he could to ingratiate
himself with Lady Hatton, he found his labours thrown away ; according
to Howell, he asked her permission to use a back gate from the gardens of
Hatton House ; but " she put him off with a compliment," whereupon
the Ambassador told the King " that my Lady Hatton was a strange lady,
for she would not suffer her husband to come in at her fore-door, nor him
to go out at her back door." It was during Gondemar's tenancy of the
house, that a mystery entitled Christ's Passion was acted here, on Good
Friday night, " at which," according to Prynne, in his Histriomastix, " there
were thousands present."
When the Duke of Richmond died at Ely Place, in 1624, his body
lay in state in Hatton House, and it is conjectured that he had been in
treaty for the purchase of the place, for subsequently Lady Hatton com-
plained to his widow of the terms of the bargain, whereupon the Duchess
took her at her word and "left it on her hands, whereby she loses ;^I500
a year and ;/!]6ooo fine." ^
These figures are interesting as indicating the size and importance of
Hatton House ; for ;ri500 a year in the time of James I. represented the
rent of a mansion little short of palatial.
When the gentlemen of the four Inns of Court arranged the elaborate
Masque which they exhibited before Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, at
Whitehall, on Candlemas Day 1633, the committee of management held
its meetings in Hatton House, and from here started the procession on
its way to Whitehall. It had a political significance, and was hoped
to counteract the effect of Prynne's Histriotnastix. It cost no less than
;^2 1,000, and among the City Records, is a letter from the Lords of the
Council to the Lord Mayor requesting him to see that the streets,
especially Aldersgate Street, through which the procession was to pass,
were well cleaned " and good and careful watch kept by constables." "
In the same reign, the See of Ely, in the person of Matthew Wren, the
Bishop, made an attempt to recover the property which had been so
arbitrarily taken by Queen Elizabeth ; and the Court of Requests before
whom the matter was brought in 1640, decided that the Bishop had a
right to redeem the purchase, but subsequently Wren was committed to the
Tower, and the House of Commons reversed this judgment. The matter
again cropped up, in the time of Charles II., and Wren, who had been rein-
stated, made another attempt to regain possession, but without any success.^
During Cromwell's time, the place appears to have been used by the
' Calendar of State Papers, quoted in London Past and Present. ' Remembrancia, p. 357.
' In Anne's reign the matter was finally settled by Bishop Patrick agreeing to forego all
claims, on condition that ^100 per annum should be paid the See of Ely in perpetuity.
(Brayley's Londiniana.)
WINCHESTER HOUSE 23
Government, both as a hospital and a prison ; while the crypt of the chapel
became a sort of military store. But the place had become so
thoroughly dilapidated that it was deemed past repair, and some por-
tion of it was removed, in 1659, for street improvements. Evelyn,
writing on June 7 of this year, mentions a visit he paid here " to
see ye foundations now laying for a long streete and buildings in
Hatton garden design'd for a little towne, lately an ample garden."
But it was not till 1772, that an Act was passed for the purchase
of the property by the Crown, and the entire demolition of the re-
maining portions of the once splendid house.' It had been under con-
templation to erect public offices on the site, but this design falling
through, the property was sold to a Mr. Charles Cole, a well-known
builder of that day, who took down all the buildings with the exception of
the chapel, and formed Ely Place on their site in 1775.
One more ancient private palace in the City must be mentioned, be-
cause the extract I shall give from Stow's survey, shows it to have been,
with its grounds, of very great proportions, and also because it was
identified with the great family of Paulet.
Winchester or Paulet House, in Austin Friars, was so named
after William Paulet, first Marquis of Winchester, who, besides being
the first nobleman on whom a marquisite " was bestowed in this country,
held various great offices of state under Edward VI. and Elizabeth, being
in turn Treasurer of the Household, Lord Chamberlain, Lord President
of the Council, and Lord High Treasurer, to mention but a tithe of
his many dignities.
The mansion was erected on the site of the cloisters and gardens of
the monastery of Augustine Friars, which had been bestowed on William
Paulet, as he then was, by Henry VIII. at the Dissolution of the
Monasteries. Paulet, who once described himself as a willow and not an
oak, and thus accounted for his retention of his high offices for so long a
time and under such difficult circumstances, resided in the house he had
built, till his death in 1572.
Stow's description of the place is unusually minute and circumstantial.
" East from the Currier's Row," he writes, " is a long and high wall of
' A perpetual annuity of ;^2oo was settled on the See of Ely, and /6400 was also paid
over, the larger portion of which was destined for the purchase of a part of the ground belong-
ing to Clarendon House, in Dover Street, on which site a new Ely House (still standing) was
to be erected as a town residence for the Bishop of that diocese. In the Transactions of the
London Archaological Society, vol. v. p. 494 et seq., is an interesting article on Ely Place,
with plans and elevations, chiefly, however, connected with the chapel attached to it.
' He was so created on October 12, 1551.
24 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
stone, inclosing the north side of a large garden adjoining to as large a
house built in the reign of King Henry VIII. and of Edward the VI. by
Sir William Powlet, Lord Treasurer of England. Through this garden,
which of old consisted of divers parts, now united, was sometimes a fair
footway, leading by the west end of the Augustine Friars' church straight
north, and opened somewhat west of Allhallows Church against London
Wall towards Moorgate ; which footway had gates at either end, locked
up every night ; but now the same way being taken into those gardens,
the gates are closed up with stone, whereby the people are forced to go
about by St. Peter's Church, and the east end of the said Friars' Church,
and all the great place and garden of Sir William Powlet to London Wall
and so to Moorgate. This great house stretched to the north corner of
Brode Street, and then turneth up Erode Street, and all that site to and
beyond the east end of the said Friars' church." J
A comparison of this description with a map of London will
give an idea of the extent of ground covered by the mansion and its
gardens.
The second Marquis made various additions and improvements to the
place, but he died only four years after succeeding to the property, when
it became the residence of his son, who used it as a town house till his
death in 1598, when the fourth Marquis, being in straits for money,
sold the property to John Swinnerton, who afterwards became Lord
Mayor of London. The price asked, as we learn from a letter from
Fulke Greville to the Countess of Shrewsbury, was /^fooo. Fancy such
a sum now being offered with any success for a hundredth part of the
area then sold !
It appears that Lady Shrewsbury" and Lady Warwick also lived in
smaller houses on the estate, as Greville states that their abodes are in-
cluded in the purchase ; and he apprehends that they would neither care
to be tenants " of such a fellow," as he terms honest Swinnerton.
The subsequent fate of the mansion appears to be unrecorded, but any
one can see for himself the congeries of business premises that now exist
on its site and that of its splendid gardens.
Considerably to the west, in Fleet Street, but yet within the precincts
of the City, is the site of another famous old house, but there is nothing
to-day in Salisbury Square, or Dorset Court as it was once alternatively
called, to indicate that the town residence of a noble family once stood in
' Stow's Survey of London.
- It would appear that her house was for a time the town residence of the Talbot family, for
a letter is extant from the seventh'Earl of Shrewsbury, dated " From his House in Broad Street,
1st Dec. 1613." See jRememdrancia, p. isg.
SALISBURY HOUSE 25
its precincts. Here, however, Salisbury House was formerly situated. It
took its name from the Bishop of Salisbury, whose palace it originally was.
In Elizabeth's reign, however, it was exchanged with Lord Treasurer
Buckhurst^ "for a piece of land near Cricklade in Wilts." Seth Ward,
who was Bishop from 1667 to 1689, told Aubrey this, and added that
" the title was not good, nor did the value answer his (Buckhurst's)
promise." To-day such an exchange could only be accounted for by
some extraordinary pressure being brought to bear on the See of Salisbury
to cause such a one-sided bargain, as it would now seem to us, to be con-
cluded. Lord Buckhurst, who was created Earl of Dorset in 1604, had
written here his tragedy of Porrex and Ferrex. According to Stow, he greatly
enlarged the place with stately buildings, but he died in 1608, and his
son, who succeeded him, also died in the following year. In the Calendar
of State Papers is this entry: "March 13, 1609. Anne Lady Glenham
sends documents to prove her right to Cecil House, intended by her
father, Earl of Dorset, for herself and her children, which, on the death
of her brother Robert, Earl of Dorset, she now claims." It was for this
reason obviously that the following action on the part of the third Earl
was necessary, for we find him obtaining a confirmation of the grant of
the Manor " of Salisbury Court, together with Salisbury House, alias
Sackville Place alias Dorset House, and divers messuages in St. Bride's and
St. Dunstan's, on his compounding for defective titles," on March 25, 161 1.
Here, in 1624, this Earl died, as his grandfather had done in 1608,
when he was succeeded by his brother, that gallant gentleman of whom
Clarendon speaks as being in his person " beautiful and graceful and
vigorous," and to whom James Howell alludes in the lines :
" His person with it such a state did bring,
That made a court as if he had been king ! "
He held many high offices under Charles I., and on the murder of his
master he retired in deep grief to Dorset House, as it was then called,
where he died in 1652.
The great house was subsequently pulled down, and a fine theatre was
built from designs by Wren on its site, after the Restoration.
I could, of course, instance other great houses that have disappeared
from the East End of London, but those I have mentioned are I think the
only ones that from one cause or another may justly be said to properly
come under the designation of private palaces, either from their size and
' Stow ; see also the author's History of the Squares of London.
26 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
importance, or from the illustrious families with whom they have been
connected and from whom they, in most instances, take their names.
As we proceed westwards we shall meet with a number of great houses
bordering the banks of the river, and lying south and north of the Strand,
until with Northumberland House, Charing Cross, the transition to those
houses which once crowded together at Whitehall and other parts of the
West End will be easy and appropriate.
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2 8 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
existed so far as I am aware, the buildings and great gardens of the Temple
occupying the intervening space.
Essex House, the site of which is still preserved in the name of Essex
Street and Devereux Court, was in pre-Retormation days the palace of
the Bishops of Exeter,^ who leased the ground on which it stood from the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem who, as we know, owned much property
here as the result of their successful rivalry with the Knights-Templars ;
at the Reformation the house and grounds were granted to William, first
Lord Paget, one of the ablest of Henry's Secretaries of State, who after-
wards helped Somerset to put aside the King's will on the accession of
Edward VI. He died on June lo, 1563, at Drayton, but it is probable
that his body was brought to Essex (then called Paget) House, as Machyn,
in his Diary, gives some account of the heraldic decorations used at his
funeral, evidently from personal observation.
Lord Paget, on obtaining possession of the house had enlarged it, but the
next owner of the property, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, seems to
have practically rebuilt it, according to a passage in Stow, and to have
re-christened it Leicester House. Spenser, in his Prothalamion inci-
dentally mentions Leicester House, and its great master, as well as his
successor here, the Earl of Essex :
" Next whereunto there stands a stately place,
Where oft I gayndd giftes and goodly grace
Of that great lord, which therein wont to dwell."
And he continues :
" Yet therein now doth lodge a noble peer,
Great England's glory, and the world's wide wonder."
Lord Essex, who certainly did a good many things to excite " the
world's wide wonder," put the coping-stone to his turbulent career of
openly defying the Queen and her Government, by trying to rouse the
populace against those, among them Sir Robert Cecil and Sir Walter
Raleigh, whom he considered responsible for his loss of ascendency over
her Majesty. At Essex House he gathered together his adherents, and
was blockaded in the mansion by the royal troops, who pointed their
cannon against it from the roofs of neighbouring houses and from the
tower of the Church of St. Clement Danes. Matters at last looked so
desperate, and the ladies in Essex House were so overcome with terror,
that Essex had perforce to surrender, and was thereupon carried a prisoner
to Lambeth Palace, and later to the Tower, where he was shortly afterwards
executed.
' Mentioned by Stow, who calls it " Excester House."
ESSEX HOUSE 29
His widow, Lady Essex, only daugiiter of Sir Francis Walsingham,
continued to reside here after his death ; and in November 1601, she and
her mother-in-law jointly petitioned the Lord Mayor and Aldermen for
" a continuance of the pipe of water which had been formerly granted to
the Lord Admiral tor the use of Essex House." This petition was
apparently acceded to ; for seven years later, another communication is
extant from the Lord Mayor, concerning the stoppage of this " quill of
water," as it was termed ; the reason given being that the water in the
conduits had become very low, and the poor were very clamorous for a
better supply ; moreover " complaints had been made of the extraordinary
waste of water in Essex House, it being taken not only for dressing meat,
but for the laundry, the stable, and other offices, which might be otherwise
served." ^
During the following reign, when the Elector Palatine came over, in
16 13, to marry the Princess Elizabeth, he was lodged in Essex House,
and in the Calendar of State Papers is preserved an interesting note of the
arrangements made for the Prince's reception here :
" Memorial of what will be required for the tables of the Elector
Palatine, viz., ten covers for his own table ; eighteen for the table of
persons of rank ; the third table for the 1 4 pages is to be served with what
is removed from the first ; and the fourth for the 24 valets, coachmen, &c.,
with what goes away from the second."
Although there appears by this to have been some sort of economy
practised, it is on record that the wedding festivities amounted to no less
than ^100,000 ! ^
During this time the house belonged to the young Earl of Essex, after-
wards the celebrated Parliamentary leader, as the title and estates forfeited
by his father had been restored to him in 1603, when he was eleven years
of age. The place, therefore, must have been rented by the crown for the
purpose of a lodging for the Elector Palatine. It remained the Earl's
London residence during his life, and in consequence of the notorious
behaviour of his two wives, ^ was alluded to in Cavalier songs as " Cuckolds
Hall." It was at Essex House that he received the congratulations of the
Corporation after the Battle of Newbury, in 1643, although that contest
was an indecisive one. But before this (in 1639), a somewhat curious
' Remembramia.
■ See the author's Life of Charles /., 1600-1625, P- ^Si for some details of the ceremonies.
Sir Anthony Weldon, in his Court of King James /., speaks of a "sumptuous feast being
given at Essex House by Mr. James Hay, afterwards Lord Hay, in the early years of James's
reign.
' He married first, in 1606, Lady Frances Howard, second daughter of the first Earl of
Suffolk, from whom he was divorced in 1613 ; and secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William
Paulet, in 1631.
30 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
arrangement had been come to between Lord Essex and the Earl
of Hertford, by which the latter obtained a lease of ninety-nine years
of a half of Essex House on the payment of a sum of ;^iioo, as
a premium.
The Earl of Essex died here, on September 14, 1646, and Pepys
records coming to Essex House to see his body lying in state. It is
probable that Lord Essex's portion of the mansion continued empty till the
Restoration, when the fourth Earl of Southampton, the Lord Treasurer, is
known to have lived in it for a time ; he died in 1667, and shortly after-
wards, the house was taken by Sir Orlando Bridgman, the Lord Keeper ;
and on January 24, 1669, he was visited here by Charles II., an incident
thus noticed by Pepys : " By and by the King comes out (from Whitehall),
and so I took coach, and followed his coaches to my Lord Keeper's at
Essex House. ... a large but ugly house. Here all the officers of the
Navy attended, and by and by were called in to the King and the Cabinet,
where my Lord, who was ill, did lie upon the bed, as my old Lord
Treasurer, or Chancellor, heretofore used to do ; and the business was
to know in what time all the King's ships might be repaired, fit for
service."
It is uncertain how long Sir Orlando Bridgman inhabited Essex House,
but according to Strype, Dr. Barebone, the great builder of the day,
purchased the property, or more probably took over the remainder of
Lord Hertford's lease, and, apparently in conjunction with others, pulled
it down and built on its site. When this occurred I don't know, but as
Dr. Barebone died in 1698, one can approximately fix the date of the
demolition. Some portions of the original mansion were for a time left
standing, and here the celebrated Cottonian Library was housed from 17 12
to 1730, but in 1777 this last remaining part was pulled down. One
interesting relic of the old place still exists in the so-called water-gate, or
rather the two pillars and cornices belonging to it, which now stand at the
end of Essex Street, and form an elaborate entrance to the flight of small
steps leading to the Embankment.'
According to an etching by Hollar, published in Ogilby and Morgan's
Plan of London, the gardens of Essex House were of immense size and of
very elaborate arrangement ; they stretched from the back of the mansion
to the water's edge, being bounded on the east by those of the Temple,
and on the west by Milford Lane.
Nearly adjoining, on the other side of this lane, was the next great
mansion about which I must say a few words, Arundel House, the site of
' In Devereux Court, high up in the wall, is a bust of Lord Essex, attributed to Caius
Gabriel Cibber, which also recalls the once famous owner of Essex House.
ARUNDEL HOUSE 31
which is preserved in the thoroughfares named after the various titles of
the great family to whom it belonged — Howard Street, Norfolk Street,
and Surrey Street.
According to the plan to which I have just referred, the area covered
by Arundel House and its gardens was even larger than that of the
Essex House property, and the mansion itself, with its great courtyard
and little town of outbuildings, was of correspondingly greater extent.^
The main portion of Arundel House — Pennant, by-the-bye, more
properly terms it Arundel Palace — stood about midway between the river
and the Strand, while one wing stretched at right angles to the river bank.
Like so many of these great houses, Arundel House was originally known
as Bath's Inn, having formerly been the London residence of the Bishops of
Bath and Wells. By an etching of Hollar's, we get a very misleading
impression of the place, as his view obviously merely represents the servants'
quarters, probably the original buildings of Bath's Inn, and the small
chapel attached to them, and Pennant was evidently so misled, from what
he says of the buildings as being, although covering much ground, "both
low and mean." This error is the more curious, as he just before quotes
the Due de Sully who was lodged here during his embassy to England in
the reign of James I., to the effect that Arundel House was one of the
finest and most commodious of any in London ; and another etching by
Hollar of a view of London taken from the top of the house, shows a
corner of a castellated building of considerable height looking down on
the more humble part of the fabric.
In the reign of Edward VI., the property was granted to Lord
Thomas Seymour, brother of the Protector, who had married Catherine
Parr, and on her death had even aspired to the hand of the Princess
Elizabeth. On his execution in 1549, the property was purchased by the
fourteenth Earl of Arundel for ^41, 6s. 8d., together, according to
Strype, as if to increase our wonder at such a price for such a place,
"with several other messuages, tenements, and lands adjoining."
It, however, appears to have still been known by its earlier name, for
Machyn, on the 9th August 1553, speaks of the Bishop of Winchester
going on that day " with my lord of Arundell to dener at Bayth plasse " ;
while on the 2ist October 1557, the diarist records the death of " my lade
the contes of Arundell at Bathe plase in sant Clement parryche with-out
Tempylle-bare " ; the lady in question being Mary, Dowager-Countess
' Ogilby's map shows that the grounds extended from Strand Bridge Lane (dividing them
from Somerset House) to iVIilford Lane (the boundary between them and those of Essex
House). They reached about 700 feet east and west, and had a depth of from 250 to 300 feet.
This portion of Ogilby's map was reproduced in enlargement by J. T. Smith in his Antiquities
of Westminster.
32 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
of Sussex, daughter of Sir John Arundel, of Lanherne, whom Lord
Arundel had married as his second wife, in 1545. The Earl himself died
in 1580, and his grandson and successor,^ dying abroad fifteen years later,
Arundel House, as it had now begun to be called, was in 1603, granted to
Charles Howard, created Earl of Nottingham in 1597, and better known
as the Lord Howard of Effingham, who commanded, as Lord High
Admiral, the English fleet against the Armada.
By an arrangement with James I., however. Lord Nottingham in 1607,
gave up the place, and the King restored it to Thomas Howard, whom
he had reinstated in his titles of Earl of Arundel and Surrey in 1603, the
Calendar of State Papers containing, under date of December 23, 1607, a
" grant to the Earl of Arundel and Robert Cannefield, in fee simple, of
Arundel House, St. Clement Danes, without Temple Bar, lately conveyed
to the King by the Earl of Nottingham."
This Earl of Arundel will be forever famous as the collector of those
wonderful Arundel marbles, with which his name is indissolubly connected.
Van Somer painted the portrait of the Earl and his Countess," and the
backgrounds to these portraits represent respectively the statue and picture
gallery at Arundel House as they were at that time.
Lord Arundel was the pioneer of that movement which had for its
object the collecting and bringing into this country the relics of
antiquity scattered about in Greece and Italy, uncared for and neglected.
He had lived for some time in Rome, and had there been known for his
lavish purchases of marbles and other antiquities. He pressed into his
service, with the same object, that Sir Thomas Roe who was sent as
Ambassador to the Porte, in 1621, and who employed agents to further
his lordship's desires. But a more systematic search for these treasures
was conducted, on behalf of the Earl, by William Petty, who was sent
out in 1625, probably on behalf of the Duke of Buckingham, who was
also smitten with a desire to pose as a connoisseur of art, having sucessfully
attempted to share in Roe's discoveries.
Petty did well, and, in 1627, the first produce of his activity arrived
at Arundel House in the shape of marbles, and a number of valuable
' He was son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk, who was beheaded in 1572, for his intrigues on
behalf of Mary Queen of Scots. When Bernardine Mendoza, the Spanish Ambassador, was
in this country, Mr. Dymoke's house in Fenchurch Street was allotted to him as a residence,
but he wanted to have Arundel House ; and in the Remembniticia some letters between
Walsingham and the Lord Mayor on the subject are alluded to. The Queen appears to have
settled that Mendoza should be lodged in the City as first arranged by the Lord Mayor.
- Lady Alathea Talbot, third daughter of the seventh Earl of Shrewsbury, whom he married
in 1606. Vandyck also painted their portraits in one piece, which picture was engraved by
Vosterman for Lord Arundel. \'anderborcht was another engraver patronised by the Earl,
certain pictures in whose collection he engraved.
ARUNDEL HOUSE 33
inscriptions, the latter of which were deciphered by the learned Selden,
and the results published in a volume known as the Marmora Arundel-
liana, in the following year. A second instalment was in this year
sent over by Petty, who seems to have been as energetic on Lord
Arundel's behalf as Gavin Hamilton, over a hundred years later, was
on behalf of the then head of the Petty family, the Marquis of Lans-
downe.
The example set by the Earl was, as I have said, imitated by the
Duke of Buckingham, and after his assassination, the Earl of Pembroke,
Charles I. himself, and others followed Arundel's splendid lead ; but,
unfortunately, the death of the Earl, in 1646, and the outbreak of the
Civil War, struck a serious 'dIow at the cultivation of art, and in the
troubles that ensued the wonderful collections at Arundel House were
dispersed ; and although some of them were again brought together, the
almost culpable indifference of the Earl's grandson (the fourth Earl, of
the Howard branch) continued the work of the fanatic Roundheads, who
sold for a mere song these invaluable relics, as they sold Charles I.'s
pictures and medals. Many of the inscriptions are luckily preserved
at Oxford ; some of the marbles were rescued by Lord Pembroke, but
this wonderful collection which might have been now, as for a few years
it was, one of the artistic glories of this country, was, as a whole, irre-
vocably spoilt.
But Lord Arundel was not only a collector of such things, he was an
enlightened patron of art in its other branches, and an evidence of this is
the fact that he invited the great engraver. Hollar, to this country, in
1636, and gave him a permanent lodging in Arundel House,' a favour he
also showed to Vanderborcht, a portrait-painter, to whom Evelyn once
sat for his picture here in 1641. He also lodged Robert Walker, the
portrait-painter, within its walls for a time, and as Cornelius Boll is
known to have made a view of Arundel House, when he was in this
country, it is not improbable that he, also, was one of Lord Arundel's
proteges; well might Evelyn describe this liberal patron as "the Maecenas
of the politer arts, and the boundless amasser of antiquities."
The statues and larger pieces were arranged in the galleries at Arundel
House ; the marbles, with Greek and Latin inscriptions, and the bas-reliefs
were affixed to the walls of the pleasure gardens ; while the mutilated
fragments were sent to a summer garden which Lord Arundel owned at
Lambeth ; it would seem, however, that the Earl's original intention had
been, according at least to a settlement he executed in 1628, to divide the
collection, which consisted of no less than 373 statues, 128 busts, and 280
' Hollar etched his well-known view of London from the roof of Arundel House.
34 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
various marbles and inscriptions, between Arundel Castle and Arundel
House, to be preserved in these two palaces as heirlooms.
The Earl was, however, a collector of other artistic objects besides
marbles, and his collection of books which his grandson, on Evelyn's advice,
presented to the Royal Society ; his cabinet of coins and medals, which
afterwards came into the possession of the Earl of Winchilsea ; his cameos
and intaglios, which were left by the Duchess of Norfolk to her second
husband, Sir John Germayne,^ and the various pictures he collected, or had
painted for him by Vandyck and Rubens and others, and particularly his
princely offer of £'Jooo to the Duke of Buckingham for an " Ecce Homo "
by Titian, prove the catholicity of his taste and his excellent judgment.
In Cromwell's time Arundel House was relegated to the reception of
illustrious strangers who visited this country ; and on the Restoration, the
fourth Earl of Arundel, to whom the Dukedom of Norfolk was restored,
took up his residence here. He contemplated rebuilding the mansion, and
among Wren's designs preserved in All Souls College, Oxford, is a plan
for a new mansion on the site of Arundel House ; but the Duke's interest in
the house did not, as we have seen, extend to its contents, and Evelyn, visit-
ing the place in 1667, and sadly remembering its former splendour, speaks
thus : " When I saw these precious monuments miserably neglected and
scattered up and down about the garden, and other parts of Arundel
House, and how exceedingly the corrosive air of London impaired them,
I procur'd him (the Duke) to bestow them on the University of Oxford.
This he was pleas'd to grant me, and now gave me the key of the gallery,
with leave to mark all those stones, urns, altars, &c., and whatever I found
had inscriptions on them that were not statues."
Evelyn had always been a frequent visitor at Arundel House, and as a
member of the Royal Society he had also attended the meetings which after
the Great Fire were regularly held here, at the invitation of the Duke, who
was a great deal more interested in science than in art, until the Society
met, in 1673, at Gresham College at the invitation of the Corporation of
London. Pepys, as a member of the Society, was also a visitor on these
occasions, and gives some amusing accounts of experiments, &c., which
took place there, and the interesting people he met.
The Duke of Norfolk died in 1 677, and his brother and successor demo-
lished the house in the following year,^ when the property was developed
into streets and tenements, which scheme had apparently been contemplated
earlier, for a Private Act, of 167 1, is entitled: "An Act for building
' Walpole's Attccdotes of Painting.
^ As the next house we shall come to is Worcester House, it is interesting to remember
that this Duke married, as his first wife, Lady Anne Somerset, elder daughter of Edward,
2nd Marquis of Worcester, famous as an inventor.
WORCESTER HOUSE 35
Arundel House and tenements thereunto belonging," unless, indeed, this
simply refers to the contemplated rebuilding of the mansion.
The whole of the estate was not, however, developed in 1678, for in
1689 another Act was passed for "building into tenements the remain-
ing part of Arundel ground as now enclosed." ^
Beyond Somerset House to the west, and close by the Savoy, formerly
stood another of the palaces for which the Strand was once famous. This
was Worcester House, nearly on the site of the present Beaufort Build-
ings, which had in pre-Reformation days belonged to the See of Carlisle.
In Aggas's map, dated 1560, it is shown as situated between the Palace
of the Savoy and Durham Place, and immediately abutting on the Strand,
while its grounds extended to the river. It was given by the Crown to the
first Earl of Bedford, and was first known as Russell or Bedford House ;
when, however, the family built another palace on the other side of the
Strand, which we shall presently come to, Bedford House passed, presumably
by purchase, into the hands of the Somerset family. I have been unable
to find out definitely the exact date of this transfer, but as the Russell
family procured a grant of the land on the other side of the Strand on which
they built another house, whither they moved from the Russell or Bedford
House I am speaking of, in 1552, it is probable that the sale to the
Somersets occurred not long after that period ; certainly I think we may
date it from the time of the third Earl of Worcester, who died in 1589,
in which case it became the town house of his son and successor, the
fourth Earl, and of his grandson, the fifth Earl (created a Marquis in
1642), during whose residence his wife, a granddaughter of the second
Earl of Bedford, gave birth, in 1601, to Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert,
afterwards second Marquis of Worcester, and celebrated for his famous
Century of Inventions, in which he anticipated some of the most remarkable
discoveries of the nineteenth century.
From Faithorne and Newcourt's bird's-eye view of London, dated
1658, Worcester House is shown as a relatively small mansion compared
with the pretentious pile of Salisbury House next to it on the west, but as
Dircks, the great authority on the life of the second Marquis of Worcester,
says, it was "a building" of some importance from its magnitude and
position as well as from the princely character of the noble possessor of
the property," and in its gardens about midway between the mansion and
the river, and close to Salisbury House, there appears, on the plan, another
building even larger than the house itself, which might excite our curiosity,
' It is interesting to know that, in 163;, the celebrated "Old I'arr'' died, aged 152, in
Arundel House, whither he had been invited in order to be introduced to Charles I.
36 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
did not the following curious story, preserved by Stow, account for its
singular position. Says the antiquary : " There being a very large walnut-
tree growing in the garden, which much obstructed the eastern prospect of
Salisbury House, near adjoining, it was proposed to the Earl of Worcester's
gardener by the Earl of Salisbury, or his agent, that if he could prevail
with his lord to cut down the said tree, he should have ;^ioo. The offer
was told to the Earl of Worcester, who ordered him to do it and take
the ;^ioo; both which were performed to the great satisfaction of the
Earl of Salisbury, as he thought ; but, there being no great kindness
between the two Earls, the Earl of Worcester soon caused to be built in
the place of the walnut-tree a large house of brick, which took away all
his prospect."
When the King and the Parliament first came to blows, a guard was
set up, by order of the latter, on Worcester House, and the place was
ordered to be searched " for persons suspected of high treason " ; in which
way did the King's enemies aim blows at his throne and person in his very
name. Two years later, it was ordered " that the iron seized at Worcester
House be forthwith sold " ; while in the year following the murder of
the King, Worcester House became a depot for the security of treasure
seized by the Parliament, as is proved by a Resolution dated January lo,
1650. It was also used for Parliamentary Committees, and was fitted up
for the reception of the Scotch Commissioners. Later the Parliament sold
It to the Earl of Salisbury, according to Whitelocke, " at the rate of
Bishops' lands," and it is probable that the purchaser was eagerly looking
forward to pulling down the objectionable building erected by Lord
Worcester; but, in 1659, "an act for settling Worcester House in the
Strand upon trustees, for the use of Margaret, Countess of Worcester,
during the life of Edward, Earl of Worcester," &c., was brought into
Parliament, and a subsequent Bill (March 14, 1659) confirming the matter
was passed, and the Countess obtained possession on the 25 th of the same
month. All the compensation she appears to have received was the sum
of ;£700 ; being ;^300 for the year as a sort of rent, and ;C400 in settle-
ment of all claims against unlawful detention.
On the Restoration, Lord Worcester offered the house to Lord
Clarendon by a letter, dated June 9, 1660,^ in which he says: "Be pleased
to accept of Worcester House to live in, far more commodious for your
Lordship than where you now are, though not in so good reparation, but
such as it is, without requiring from your Lordship one penny of rent."
Although Clarendon does not appear to have accepted this generous offer,
he did rent Worcester House, paying £s°° ^ Y^^^ ^°^ '^^> ^'^^ '^^ ^^^^ ^^'"^•
* Given by Dircks in his Li/e of Lord IVorccster.
WORCESTER HOUSE 37
on September 3, 1660, "between 11 and 2 at night," that the Duke of
York was married to Anne Hyde.
Shortly after that event, Evelyn went to see the bride, " the marriage
being now newly owned," and having kissed her hand, as did the Lord
Chamberlain, and the Countess of Northumberland, he muses on this
" strange change," and wonders " if it can succeed well " ? ^
The other great Diarist of the period, Pepys, was also frequently here
seeing Clarendon on the business connected with the Navy Office, and
while waiting on one occasion in the " Great Hall," he remarks that it
was "wonderful how much company there was to expect him" ; while at
another time, while Mr. Secretary is awaiting my lord, " in comes the King
in a plain and common riding suit and velvet cap, in which he seemed a
very ordinary man to one that had not known him." "
Here, too, occurred that curious instance of second sight, which the
second Lord Clarendon related thus to Pepys, in a letter, dated May 27,
1 701 : " One day — towards the middle of February 166 1-2, the old Earl
of Newburgh came to dine with my father at Worcester House, and another
Scotch gentleman with him, whose name I cannot call to mind. After
dinner, as we were standing and talking together in the room, says my
Lord Newburgh to the other Scotch gentleman, who was looking very
steadfastly upon my wife, ' What is the matter, that thou hast had thine
eyes fixed upon Lady Cornbury ever since she came into the room .'' Is
she not a fine woman ? Why dost thou not speak .'' ' ' She's a handsome
lady, indeed,' said the gentleman, ' but I see her in blood.' Whereupon my
Lord Newburgh laughed at him ; and all the company going out of the
room, we parted ; and I believe none of us thought more of the matter ;
I am sure I did not. My wife was at that time perfectly well in health,
and looked as well as ever she did in her life. In the beginning of the
next month she fell ill of the small-pox ; she was always very apprehensive
of that disease, and used to say, if she ever had it, she would dye of it.
Upon the ninth day after the small-pox appeared, in the morning, she bled
at the nose, which quickly stopt ; but in the afternoon the blood burst out
again with great violence at her nose and mouth, and about eleven of the
clock that night she dyed almost weltering in her blood."
Lord Clarendon remained at Worcester House until the Great Fire,
when he removed to Berkshire House," St. James's, for a time, until
Clarendon House, Piccadilly, was ready for his reception. After this,
Worcester House seems to have been used merely for certain public
' Diary, December 22, 1660. ^ Ibid., August 19, 1661.
' For an account of this house see the chapter on Bridgewater House, which stands
practically on its site.
38 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
functions, for which its Great Hall was well adapted, and among these
the Installation of the Duke of Ormond as Chancellor of the University
of Oxford, in 1669, ^^^ that of the Duke of Monmouth to the like office
at Cambridge, five years later, are recorded.
Pennant says the house was demolished by the first Duke of Beaufort,
but Thornbury states that it was burnt down in 1695. It may be that
some kind of conflagration did take place, but this probably only served
as the pretext for pulling down the place, as we know that the Duke of
Beaufort had purchased a house at Chelsea in 1682.^ As in the case of
all the palaces which once lined the Strand, Beaufort House, when destroyed,
was replaced by streets and houses, — the latter, in this case, being known
as Beaufort Buildings.
As I have noted when relating the story of Lord Worcester's walnut-
tree, Salisbury or Cecil House as it seems to have been alternatively
called, adjoined Worcester House on the west and in height, at any rate,
dwarfed that mansion considerably. It was erected by Sir Robert Cecil,
Elizabeth's " little Great Secretary," as Sir Anthony Weldon calls him,
who afterwards became first Earl of Salisbury, at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, the Queen herself being present at the house-warming
which took place on December 9, 1602. John Manningham notices the
event in the diary he kept for this and the following year. "On Monday
last," he writes, " the Queen dyned at Sir Robert Cecils newe house in the
Stran. Shee was verry royally entertained, richely presented, and marvelous
well contented, but at hir departure shee strayned hir foote. His hall
was well furnished with choise weapons, which hir majestie tooke speciale
notice of"; and he goes on to tell of the "devices" with which the
Queen was received according to the custom of the period. But, although
this entertainment was given, the mansion was in anything but a complete
state ; indeed its owner was still at work on it six years later ; and there
is extant some very interesting information on the subject. Thus, on
August 10, 1608, and in subsequent letters, Thomas Wilson writes to Lord
Salisbury (as Cecil had then become "), pointing out to him " the difference
of cost between Canterbury stone and Caen stone for the works at Salisbury
House " ; and in September of the same year, one Leonard Lawrence
tells Wilson that he had procured some sixty or seventy loads of the
former material from the inner gate at Canterbury which had apparently
been demolished for the purpose ; but that he had proceeded no further
• Timbs is probably more correct when he says that the great house was taken down, and
a smaller one erected on its site, and that it was the latter which was destroyed by fire in 1695.
' He was created an Earl by Jarnes I., in 1605.
CECIL HOUSE 39
because " the townspeople keeps so much ado " — as well they might I
However, the difficulty seems to have been overcome, for later he tells
Wilson that the demolition is complete, and that he has shipped more
stone to London. Another trouble, however, arose owing to the diffi-
culty in procuring workmen, and those that were at last enlisted had to
be sent all the way from Newcastle where they were taken off work on
the castle for the purpose.
These facts are to be found in the Calendar of State Papers, where,
under date of September 1610, are certain specifications by a Mr. Osborne
for the erection of a portico at the river end of the garden of Salisbury
House ; the architect not improbably being the John Osborn who was
also a carver of some note at that period. The second Lord Salisbury,
who succeeded his father, in 16 12, apparently found the great house too
large for his requirements, or else thought it necessary to retrench ; in any
case, he caused the building to be divided ; one portion subsequently being
known as Great, and the other as Little, Salisbury House. The former
he kept as his own residence, the latter he let to " persons of quality,"
among them being that third Earl of Devonshire, the pupil of Hobbes,
who was lodged in a room here and otherwise befriended by his
noble patron ; while another was apparently Sir Thomas Edmunds,
Treasurer of the King's House, who is found writing to the Lord
Mayor in June 16 18, and requesting "that a quill of water from the
City's pipe for his house (Cecil House) in the Strand, which had been
formerly allowed to the previous tenants, might be restored."
In the time of the third Earl of Salisbury ^ the property was let
on building leases, the smaller mansion pulled down, and streets and
houses formed ; while on the site of the house itself, the so-called
" Middle Exchange," running from the Strand to the river, was erected,
but not proving a success, was later, together with Great Salisbury
House, demolished, and Cecil Street formed on the ground they both
occupied.
As I do not include among " private palaces " the great ecclesiastical
residences in London, except where their private interest outbalances their
ecclesiastical claims,^ as is the case with some I have already mentioned, I
am perforce obliged to pass by Durham House with a mere allusion ; for,
' In the Calendar of State Papers, under date of March 1673, is this entry : " Licence to
James, Earl of Salisbury, to build on the grounds of Salisbury House in the Strand, and the
gardens, &c., belonging to them. "
- Of course, as a matter of fact, as Howell in his Londinopolis states, from Salisbury or
Dorset Houses in Fleet Street to Whitehall, all the great mansions built on the Thames were
episcopal palaces, at one time or another, with the exception of the Royal Palace of the Savoy,
and Suffolk House.
40 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
although at various times it was granted to private people and even used
as a residence for foreign notabilities, it practically throughout its career
continually reverted to its rightful owners, the Bishops of Durham. Had,
however, Philip, Earl of Pembroke, who obtained what was left of the
once splendid house — for it had been much encroached upon both as to
the actual fabric and the gardens — seen fit to carry into execution the
scheme he had formed for building another magnificent mansion on its
site, for which purpose John Webb, the pupil of Inigo Jones, prepared
plans still extant, I should have had a subject made to my hand ;
as it is, I must pass on to York House which adjoined Durham House
to the west.
York House was the most splendid of the many splendid mansions
that formerly stood in such profusion in this part of London. Its
ecclesiastical traditions were, it is true, short-lived, but they clustered around
the great northern Archbishopric ; its associations with Lord Chancellor
Bacon give it a double claim to be connected with politics and literature ;
its apotheosis under the magnificent Buckingham raised it almost to a level
with the Royal palace close by ; its very decline and fall were so sudden
that they but emphasised its former glory. It is, too, the only one of the
Strand residences (for Northumberland House was properly at Charing
Cross) of which I am able to give some more or less detailed account
of the interior decorations and the splendid, contents ; and so far as the
latter are concerned, as the profuse favourite who brought them together
was one of the pioneers of art-collecting in this country, the record of the
artistic objects once in York House is a part of the history of art, and
such as Vertue and Walpole have preserved the memory of the most
important of them, while the biographers of Rubens and Vandyck have
necessarily had much to say about the patron of these painters and his
remarkable accumulation of pictures.
The London residence of the Archbishops of York was originally at
Suffolk House, in Southwark, a house built by Charles Brandon, Duke of
Suffolk, in the reign of Henry VIII., which Queen Mary presented to the
See in consequence of York House at Westminster, better known as
Whitehall, having been wrested from Wolsey by Henry VIII. Not long
afterwards, however, the then Archbishop, Heath, obtained, according to
Strype, " a licence for the alienation of this capital messuage of Suffolk
Place ; and to apply the price thereof for the buying of other houses
called also Suffolk Place, lying near Charing Cross." But Heath appears
to have been the only Archbishop who lived in what was then called York
House, as from 1561 to 1606, it was apparently leased as an official
YORK HOUSE 41
residence to the Lord Keepers of the Great Seal/ or as Walford states,
was exchanged by Archbishop Matthews, in the reign of James I., with the
Crown for certain manors in the north.
One of the most notable of the Lord Keepers who, in the course of
time, took up his residence at York House, was Sir Nicholas Bacon,
who became Lord Chancellor in 1558; and here, on January 22, 1561,
was born his more famous son, Francis Bacon. Hepworth Dixon, in
recording this event, gives the following vignette of the place, as it
appeared at that time : " This house, a fief of the Crown," he says, " stood
next to the palace, from which it was parted by lanes and fields ; the
courtyard and the great gates opening to the street ; the main front, with
its turrets, facing the river. The garden, of unusual size and splendour,
fell by an easy slope to the Thames, which communicated with it by stairs,
and commanded (a view) as far south as the Lollards' Tower, as far east
as London Bridge. All the gay river life swept past the lawn ; the shad-
fishers spreading their nets, the watermen paddling gallants to Bankside,
the city barges rowing past in procession, and the Queen herself, with her
train of lords and ladies, shooting by in her journeys from the Tower to
Whitehall stairs.""
The size of these gardens is confirmed by old plans of London ;
but the proximity of York House to Whitehall is somewhat poetically
exaggerated, while the little picture, drawn by E. M. Ward, which is
reproduced on the title-page of Dixon's book, is as purely imaginary as
certain other historical scenes drawn by that otherwise clever artist.
York House was more closely connected with Francis Bacon's life
than any other place ; " it was the scene of his gayest hours and of his
sharpest griefs, of his magnificence and of his profoundest prostration." ^
Here his youth was spent; here his father died, in 1579; here Lord
Keeper Puckering also died, in 1576; and here Lord Keeper Egerton
lived for at least a year ; and during all this time Bacon was in touch with
the mansion. In York House the inquiry into the Irish Treason was held,
and, in 1588, Lord Essex attempted to obtain possession of the place, the
custody of which was, according to Norden, given to him, and which was
later to become his prison when, in October 1599, he was placed under
the surveillance of Egerton. In James I.'s reign the inquiry into the
mysterious death of Overbury, which occurred in 161 3, and for which
Mrs. Turner, who had administered poison to him with a fiendish perse-
verance, was hanged, while Lady Essex and her lover the Earl of Somerset,
' A letter from Lord Keeper EUesmere, dated 29th July 1612, from York House, is
extant.
^ Life of Lord Bacon. ' Ibid.
42 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
who were the real instigators of the crime, were merely imprisoned/ was
also held here.
Shortly before Francis Bacon became Lord Keeper and Chancellor, he
took, up his residence in his old home ; " and the affection he had for it is
illustrated by a reply he made to the Duke of Lennox, who was anxious
to get possession of the place : " York House is the House wherein my
father died, and wherein I first breathed, and there will I yield up my
last breath, if so please God and the King will give me leave." ^
In 1620, he sent a copy of his Novum Organum to the University of
Cambridge, from here, and in the following year the charges, which had
been impending over his head, were formulated, and from York House he
addressed his long and famous letter of confession and apology to the peers.
Hither, too, came the Sergeant-at-Arms to desire his attendance at the Bar of
the House, but found " the Lord Chancellor sick in bed " ; and on May i,
1 62 1, the great seal was taken from him here. For some weeks after
the sentence passed on him. Bacon remained quietly at York House ;
indeed he seems to have only cared for that and his books, for it had
been pointed out to him, by Sir Edward Sackville, that if he but consented
to give up the place, " the town were yours and all your straitest shackles
shaken off." This adumbrates what was in the wind. The Duke of
Buckingham was anxious to possess the ground on which the mansion
stood, in order that he might, with the help of Inigo Jones, erect a sump-
tuous palace, and had Bacon fallen in with his views, there is very little
doubt that Buckingham's great influence would have cleared away other
difficulties from his path. But the favourite was hardly the one to put up
with the opposition of a fallen statesman, and what he could not procure
by fair means he took other methods to accomplish, and on May 31, 1621,
officers of the Crown came to York House, arrested the ex-Chancellor,
and carried him off to the Tower. The indignant letter he wrote to
Buckingham caused his release the same night, and he was allowed to
return to York House to sleep, but the next day he left, and went to
Sir John Vaughan's residence at Parson's Green. Even then he made an
appeal to be allowed to return to the place that was so dear to him, but
Buckingham would hear nothing of the sort, and James suggested his
retiring to his country seat at Gorhambury, whither, rather reluctantly, he
went. Some months later, he was allowed to come up to York House,
' See the facts 'i Truth Brought to Light by Time, a scarce pamphlet on the subject.
^ He was made Lord Keeper in 1618, and in the preceding July, 1617, is a letter from him
to the Lord Mayor, desiring that a lead pipe from the City's mains might be laid on for
supplying York House with water.
^ He however died, not even in his own country house, Gorhambury, whither he had retired
after his disgrace, but at Witherborne, Lord Arundel's place close by.
YORK HOUSE 43
presumably to collect, and arrange for the removal of, his belongings, but
he remained so unconscionable a time there, that the Duke grew nervous,
and Bacon received warning that he must at once return to the country.
How exactly Buckingham became possessed of York House is a little
obscure ; on the one hand, in the Calendar of State Papers, there is an
entry to the effect that " Viscount St. Albans (Francis Bacon) has filed a
Bill in Chancery against Buckingham, on account of the non-performance
of his contract for taking York House," which would seem to indicate
that the Duke had arranged to purchase it from the ex-Chancellor, or
rather to purchase Bacon's interest in it ; on the other, Gerbier states that
Buckingham " borrowed " it from Tobie Matthew, Archbishop of York
until the latter was able " to accept as good a seat as that was in lieu of
the same." However, the matter as between the varied interests of the
Crown, the Archbishop, and Bacon, was subsequently settled by the
Duke's obtaining possession, as Laud thus records in his Diary, for
May 15, 1624: "The Bill passed in Parliament for the King to have
York House in exchange for other lands. This was for the Lord Duke
of Buckingham."
On obtaining possession, Buckingham at once proceeded to demolish
the mansion, and to erect on its site a large house, not apparently as a
residence, but for the housing of his wonderful collection of pictures, as
well as for the reception of the innumerable foreign ambassadors whose
interest it was to pay him attention ; as well as for those great festivities
which he was wont to give to the King and Court.
It would appear that the palace projected by the imagination of the
favourite and the genius of Inigo Jones, was never actually completed, but
if it was to have been proportionate with the splendid water-gate that still
exists — the only surviving relic of it, at the bottom of Buckingham Street,
and perhaps the most beautiful piece of work that even Inigo Jones
ever designed — we can imagine to what a scale of regal magnificence the
completed palace would have attained.
The interior walls were decorated with large mirrors, which were at
that time of considerably greater rarity and value than they are to-day ;
and in order to cover those portions of the building which were not thus
lighted up, the Duke purchased from Rubens the great assemblage of
pictures and other artistic effects which the painter had collected for the
adornment of his home at Antwerp. The price paid for the whole of
these beautiful objects was one hundred thousand florins, a great sum in
those days ; but when we know that among the pictures were nineteen by
Titian ; seventeen by Tintoretto ; thirteen by Rubens himself, and a like
number from the brush of Paul Veronese ; twenty-one by Bassano, and
44 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
three each by Raphael and Leonardo ; besides many other fine works,
together with antiques, gems, &c., the price seems to our modern ideas of
relative value, ridiculously inadequate.
Gerbier indirectly indicates that these treasures must have been
crowded together in bewildering profusion, for he says ^ that Charles I.
once remarked that he had seen at York House " in a roome not above
35 foot square, as much as could be represented as to sceans in the great
Banquetting Room of Whitehall."
With regard to the general splendour of the place and its contents
much contemporary evidence is extant ; for instance here is what Peacham
in his Compkat Gentleman has to say on the matter : " At York House,
the galleries and rooms are ennobled with the possession of those Roman
Heads and statues which lately belonged to Sir Peter Paul Rubens, that
exquisite painter of Antwerp ; and the garden will be renowned so long as
John de Bologna's ' Cain and Abel ' stands there, a piece of wondrous
art and workmanship. The King of Spain gave it to his Majesty
at his being there (in 1623), who bestowed it on the late Duke of
Buckingham."
When the Marshal de Bassompierre came over to England, on his
embassy, in 1626, he, as a matter of course, paid a visit to Buckingham at
" Jorschaux," as he calls it, which was the nearest attempt to spell York
House he could compass, and one who had been familiar with all the
courts and great houses of Europe, could speak of it not only as being
"extremely fine," but as " more richly fitted up than any other" he ever
beheld ! To the same observer we owe some details of one of those magni-
ficent fetes with which Buckingham loved to exhibit at once his taste and
his ostentation, for Bassompierre, in one of his despatches, departing for
the moment from more serious matters, describes the vaulted rooms ; the
ballets which accompanied the supper ; the various changes of courses,
interspersed by theatrical displays, and the beautiful music ; and he also
notes the Duke's contrivance of having a turning door, only admitting
one person at a time, in order to obviate undue pressure.
In the Sloane MSS. is a letter which contains this notice of another of
these entertainments : " Last Sunday, at night, the duke's grace enter-
tained their majesties and the french Ambassador at York House with
great feasting and show, where all things came down in clouds, amongst
which one rare device was a representation of the French King, and the
two Queens, with their chiefest attendants, and so to the life, that the
Queen's majesty could name them. It was four o'clock in the morning
before they parted, and then the King and Queen, together with the
' "Discourse on Building," quoted in London Past and Prcsoii.
YORK HOUSE 45
French Ambassador, lodged there. Some estimate this entertainment at
five or six thousand pounds." ^
But Buckingham did not spend all his substance on such ephemeral
delights; as we have seen, he bought Rubens's wondrous collection; he
was, besides, a patron of that great man as well as of Vandyck, and others,
and Gentileschi is known to have worked for him at York House, where
was a ceiling representing the nine Muses in a circle by this painter, who
also painted the Villiers family in one group, and a picture, not less than
eight feet by five, of a Magdalen lying in a grotto, which also hung here ;
while the splendid group of the Duke surrounded by his family, the work
of Honthorst, now at Hampton Court, and the many portraits of him by
other painters of the reign of James and Charles, show Buckingham to have
been a splendid patron of art, even if, as his enemies were fond of asserting,
vanity was its mainspring.
Balthazar Gerbier, whom the Duke employed, not only in the produc-
tion of his princely entertainments, but also in the collection of works of
art, once wrote to his employer in these terms: "Sometimes, when I am
contemplating the treasure of rarities which your excellency has in so
short a time amassed, I cannot but feel astonishment in the midst of my
joy. For out of all the amateurs, and princes, and Kings, there is not
one who has collected in forty years as many pictures as your Excellency
has collected in five." -
In 1645, the Parliament ordered all " the superstitious pictures in York
House," by which they indicated all those that represented sacred subjects,
to be sold, but, before this order could be enforced, some of them were
sent out of the country, and were purchased by the Archduke Leopold,
including the magnificent Titian for which Lord Arundel had once offered
the Duke ;^7ooo, as I have before mentioned.
York House itself was presented to Fairfax, whose daughter the second
Duke of Buckingham, made for ever memorable by Dryden's lines, married
in September 1657, and thus the property reverted to the Villiers family,
Cromwell giving the Duke permission to reside at York House, on the
understanding that he was not to quit it without the Protector's leave.
Of course, Buckingham tried to override the arrangement, and was promptly
lodged in the Tower ; a proceeding that caused high words between his
father-in-law and Cromwell.
1 This, it is probable, was identical with the banquet mentioned by Walter Yonge in his
Diary, as costing ^4000, and during which he says " the sweet water which cost ^200 came
down the room as a shower from heaven," and notes "the banquet let down in a sheet upon the
table, no man seeing how it came." November 1626. Bassompierre also gives an account of
this great feast.
- Quoted in Bishop Goodman's Memoirs.
46 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
The second Duke of Buckingham died in 1687; but according to
Evelyn, York House had begun to be neglected even as early as 1655,
when he went to see it. For some years afterwards it was let as a
temporary embassy; thus, in 1661, the Spanish Ambassador rented it;
when Pepys once walked through it, during Mass, and was disappointed
with the gardens; and in 1663, the Russian Ambassador was here, on
which occasion the Diarist made another visit, and was chiefly pleased with
" the remains of the noble soul of the late Duke of Buckingham appearing
in his house, in every place, in the door cases and the windows," as he
quaintly puts it. It was on the occasion of York House being occupied
by the Russian Envoy that the Earl of Manchester, then a joint Com-
missioner for the office of Earl Marshal, wrote to the Lord Mayor, desiring
that the water-pipes connected with the mansion should be repaired.
I do not know what the Spanish and Russian Ambassadors paid for the
use of York House, but Mr. Wheatley mentions the sum of ^^1359, los.
as being, in 1668, the rental of the place ; four years later, however, the
Duke sold it to certain undertakers, as building speculators were then called,
named Eldyn, Higgs, and Hill, who demolished the mansion, and on its
site and that of its fine gardens built those streets which still, by their
names, perpetuate the Duke of magnificent memory, and in which his
name and title is thus curiously preserved : George (Street) Villiers
(Street), Duke (Street) Of (Alley) and Buckingham (Street).^
It is said that the second Duke made it a condition with the purchasers
that he should be thus commemorated, which is satirised in a line in the
so-called Litany of the Duke of Buckingham —
" Calling streets by our name when we have sold the land,"
but it is probable that these names will always rather recall the splendour
of the first Duke than the inconsistency of the second.
Before saying anything about Northumberland House, there remain
three other palaces in the Strand which require some notice, although what
is known of them is only sufficient to give us a more or less vague idea of
their splendour. These mansions stood on the north side of the street, and
the first of them, i.e. the most easterly, was Wimbledon House, which
was erected probably at the close of the sixteenth century by Sir Edward
Cecil, third son of the first Earl of Exeter, who was created Viscount
Wimbledon in 1625, and who died thirteen years later. Inigo Jones is
' Hollar made a drawing of the house, which is preserved in the Pepysian Library at
Cambridge, and is reproduced in Wilkinson's Loiidina Illustrata.
EXETER HOUSE 47
said to have designed the mansion, which Strype calls " a very handsome
house." The chief portion of it was destroyed by fire in 1628, and what
remained was pulled down in 1782. It was erected on part of the Exeter
House property, at the north-east corner of the present Wellington Street,
but little or nothing seems to be known of it beyond these few facts, and
it is rather curious that its name is not preserved in any of the streets
which now cover, or are adjacent to, the site where it once stood ; perhaps
we may from this conclude that although a large house, it was not on the
scale of magnificence of the other mansions in the Strand which have
nearly all received in this way some posthumous record. One of the
chief of these was Burleigh, Cecil, or Exeter House as it was variously
termed, which once stood on the site of Burleigh and Exeter Streets
and their adjacent houses.
The genesis of Exeter House was sufficiently humble, for on this spot
originally stood a rectory-house attached to the Church of St. Clement
Danes, " with a garden and close for the parson's horse." In the reign of
Edward VI., however, this small property came into the hands of Sir
Thomas Palmer, who pulled down the old buildings and "rebuilt the
same of brick and timber very large and spacious," ^ indeed in such a
complete way that it was described as a magnificent house. Palmer, who
was called " buskin Palmer," and was an adherent of the Duke of Somerset,
was subsequently accused of high treason, and his property, including the
mansion, was forfeited to the Crown. He had received a free pardon in
February 1552, but on the 25th July 1553, he was sent to the Tower
with, among others, the Duke of Northumberland, and on the following
19th of August was ordered to be hanged and quartered, a sentence
which was changed to that of beheading ; he suffered with the Duke and
Sir John Gates three days later on Tower Hill.
Elizabeth granted the place to Sir William Cecil, who, according to
Stow, " beautifully increased it " ; while Norden " thus speaks of it under
its new master : " The house of the ryght honourable Lord Burleigh,
Lord High Treasurer of England and by him erected. Standinge on the
north side of the Stronde, a verie fayre howse raysed with brickes, pro-
portionablie adorned with four turrets placed at the four quarters of the
howse ; within it is curiouslye beautified with rare devises, and especially
the oratory, placed in an angle of the great chamber. Unto this is
annexed on the east a proper howse * of the honourable Sir Robert
Cecill Knight, and of Her Mats: most honourable Prevye Counsayle."
' Gentlcmaii s Magazine, London Topography.
- Norden's Middlesex, Harleian MS. Quoted in London Past ami Present.
' This was Wimbledon House.
48 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Allen, in his History of London, quotes, as evidence of the princely
style in which Lord Burleigh lived, the Desiderata Curiosa, where it is
stated that his housekeeping charges when he was in residence were ^40 to
;^50 a week for his London house alone. He kept no less than eighty
servants, and at the same time had the great establishments of Theobalds
and Burleigh on his hands, besides his heavy expenses at Court ; while his
almsgiving alone amounted to ;^500 a year, and his stables cost him
1000 marks yearly.
From old plans, Exeter House is shown as facing the Strand ; its
gardens extending from the west side of the garden-wall of Wimbledon
House to the green lane, which is now Southampton Street.
Here Lord Burleigh was visited by Elizabeth, and in the diary he
kept is this entry for July 14, 1561 : "The Queene supped at my
house in Strand before it was fully finished " ; a circumstance also
recorded by Machyn, who, however, places the event a day earlier thus :
"The xiii. day of July — the same nyght the Queens grace whent from
the Charterhouse by Clerkynewelle over the feldes unto the Savoy unto
Master secretore Syssell to soper, and ther was the Counsell and many
lordes and knyghtes and ladies and gentyll-women, and ther was grett
chere tyll mydenyght." The Queen came on another occasion to see
Lord Burleigh here, and finding him suffering from gout made him sit in
her presence, saying, " My Lord, we make use of you not for the badness
of your legs but for the goodness of your head." There is also a
tradition that once calling here, decorated with that elaborate headdress
she was wont to affect, the servant asked her to stoop in going through a
door, when she replied, "For your master's sake I will stoop," adding
somewhat irrelevantly, "but not for the King of Spain."
Another entry in Lord Burleigh's Diary records the birth of his
daughter Elizabeth here, on July i, 1564; while in Massingham's
Journal it is noted that Tarleton, who was a comedian of the period,
" called Burley House gate in the Strand towards the Savoy, the Lord
Treasurer's Almes gate, because it was seldom or never opened," in which
remark I fear the actor allowed his love for a jest to get the better of his
veracity, for, as I have pointed out. Lord Burleigh's benefactions to the
poor were on a most lavish scale.
Burleigh died on August 4, 1598, and was succeeded by his son,
Thomas Cecil, who was created Earl of Exeter in 1605, when the name
of the house was changed from Burleigh to Exeter. I find the Lady
Hatton, mentioned previously, living here in 1617, she probably having
rented it ; and in this year she entertained the King and Queen here, but
true to her resentment against her second husband, Sir Edward Coke, she
EXETER HOUSE 49
would not permit him to be one of the company, although James himself
desired his presence ! *
In 1623, when the "Spanish match " was still supposed to be a fait
accompli, and James was expecting the Infanta over here, he desired to
borrow Exeter House in order to instal some of her suite here. The
first Lord Exeter had died in the February of this year, and the place was
still let apparently to several people, for the second Earl, while complying
in a hesitating way with the King's request, replied that " he could not
find it in his heart to bid those in it begone, especially Lord Denny " ;
and he shifts the responsibility of giving them notice to the Lord
Treasurer. The latter evidently arranged the business satisfactorily,
for, on June 17, the Spanish Ambassador Extraordinary was conveyed
with many coaches to Exeter House, which was richly furnished and
decorated for his reception."
The chapel attached to the house seems to have been fitted up as
a Roman Catholic place of worship for the use of Henrietta Maria, in
the next reign, at which time the Duchess of Richmond was occupying the
mansion itself; and it was in this chapel that Evelyn, attending the
celebration on Christmas Day 1657, was, with others, detained by
the Puritan soldiers, on the ground that none should any longer observe
the superstitious time of the nativity ; but after being examined in a
room in Exeter House by certain officers, was allowed to depart, they
dismissing him " with much pity for his ignorance " !
After the Great Fire, the house was rented by the Government for the
holding here of the Court of Arches and Prerogative Courts which the
burning of Doctors' Commons had left homeless. Later still, the first
Earl of Shaftesbury was living here; and here, in 1671, was born his
grandson, the third Earl and author of the famous Characteristics. Lord
Shaftesbury had married, en second noces, Lady Francis Cecil, daughter of
the third Earl of Exeter, in 1650, which may be sufficient to account for
his presence as an occupant of the house. He, however, removed to
Thanet House in the City, in 1676, as I have before mentioned: but
it was during his sojourn in the Strand that John Locke was a resident
here, as he continued to be in Thanet House, in the capacity of tutor
to Lord Ashley, and physician to the household, and while here he was
engaged on his great work on the Human Understanding.
With the departure of Lord Shaftesbury, the history of this interesting
old house closes, for soon afterwards it was pulled down, and its site
1 We know Lady Hatton entertained their Majesties at Hatton House, in November of this
year ; so it is probable that she had just taken Exeter House when she was again thus honoured.
- Calendar of State Papers.
D
50 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
covered with streets and buildings, among the latter being the once well-
known Exeter 'Change. In 1855, the second Marquis of Exeter sold the
property on the site of Exeter House for something over ;^50,ooo.
Although Sorbi^re in his Voyage en Angleterre (1666) speaks of old
Bedford House in the Strand, which stood a little west of where South-
ampton Street runs, as " Le Palais de Bethfordt," I don't know that it
should rightly be included among residences with this high-sounding title.
Strype calls it " a large but old built house with a great yard before it
for the reception of carriages ; with a spacious garden having a terrace-
walk adjoining to the brick wall next the garden, behind which were the
coach-houses and stables, with a conveyance into Charles Street through a
large gate," and by Blome's map of the parish of St. Paul's, Covent
Garden, the mansion is shown standing at right angles (looking east) to
the Strand, with its gardens, stretching from the south side of the Piazza
of Covent Garden to the Strand, and as far as Exeter House to the east.^
But notwithstanding that it was, for the period, a relatively large house,
and belonged to the noble family of Bedford from about the time of its
erection in 1552, till so late as 1704, when they left it for the splendid
mansion in Bloomsbury, when it was thereupon demolished, it appears to
me to have not been on that scale of grandeur which characterised the
other noble houses in the Strand I have mentioned, for which reason I
shall leave it and pass on to the splendid town residence of the Percies
at Charing Cross — which down to our own day was known as Northum-
berland House.
It is a curious fact, and one which gives food for much reflection, that
Northumberland House, of all the old private palaces of London, was
the only one which survived till the latter half of the nineteenth century ;
most of them, as we have seen, were demolished in favour of building
development ; a few were replaced by mansions more sumptuous and more
consonant with the times in which they were erected, but not one, except
the London house of the Percies, remained intact till our own time.
In 1475, there had been erected, on the spot where Northumberland
House was afterwards to stand, a cell with a chapel adjoining named St.
Mary Rouncivall, from the convent of Roncesvalles in Navarre, with which
it was connected ; at about the time of the Reformation, however, this,
in common with the other religious houses, was suppressed, and the land
on which it stood let out in various tenements. Such at least is the
• Smith, in his Antiquities of Westminster, reproduces an enlargement of the ground plan
of the property.
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52 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
his daughter, Lady Margaret Howard, was married to Roger Boyle, Lord
Broghill, and it was to this circumstance that Suckling refers in his
famous and delightful Ballad on a Weddings the scene of which took place
here, where, as the poet sings :
" At Charing Cross, hard by the way
Where we (thou know'st) do sell our hay,
There is a house with stairs."
Suckling, who, one supposes, was a guest at the function, describes the
wedding as a countryman might be supposed to do ; whence the emphasis
on the house having stairs, and the rustic turn of the language which
curiously enough enshrines those exquisite conceits and perfect com-
parisons which make the poem a gem of its kind, unsurpassed and
unsurpassable.
Lord Suffolk changed the name of the mansion to Suffolk House,
although letters from him, in July and August 1614, are still dated from
Northampton House, and completed the place by adding the front facing
the river ; ' but after occupying it for twelve years, he died, in 1 626, and was
succeeded by his son Theophilus, whose second daughter Elizabeth married
in 1642, as his second wife, Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland.
The second Earl of Suffolk died four years later, and his successor, James,
the third Earl, who, though married, had no children to succeed him,
made over the property to his brother-in-law, when its name was for the
third time changed, and it became known as Northumberland House till
the close of its existence.
In view of the pedigree of the mansion here given, which is that
accepted by all London topographers, it is a curious fact that in the City
Archives is a letter from Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland,
dated February 18, 161 6, to the Lord Mayor, in which the Earl informs
him that he has heard of a pretended claim made by the Court of Alder-
men to a garden belonging to Northumberland House ; " which he had
sold to Mr. Robert Chamberlain," and stating that " he, and those from
whom he claimed, had held and enjoyed Northumberland House, with
the upper and nether garden, without interruption, for a hundred years,
at least." A note to this passage in the Remembrancia, states that " Sion
House, Charing Cross," had been granted to the ninth Earl of Northum-
• In the Calendar of State Pape?-s, for March 1 5, 1617, is a " grant to the Earl of Suffolk to
have a small pipe for conveying water to Suffolk House, inserted in the main pipe from Hyde
Park to Westminster Palace " ; while in the Remembrancia, is a letter from Lord Northum-
berland, dated March 7, 1664, stating that "he had lately been deprived of the conduit
water which had always served Northumberland House," and requesting permission " for a
quill of water from the City's pipes, which passed the gates of his residence."
NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE 5
^
berland, by James I., in 1604. If this was the case it would appear that
the Northumberland (or Sion) House here referred to, was an altogether
different building from the better known one I am speaking of, and
that all traces of this residence have been lost. It may conceivably
have adjoined Suffolk or Northampton House, and the fact that Lord
Northumberland had sold part of the property to Mr. Chamberlain, may
have been an additional reason for Lord Suffolk's making the latter
mansion over to him.
The tenth Earl of Northumberland was the heroic figure, who fought
during the Civil Wars for King Charles, whom Clarendon speaks of " as
in all his deportment a very great man," and whose handsome face and
somewhat sad speculative eyes look out from Vandyck's famous picture.
Among a variety of great offices which he filled, was, in 1642, that of
First Commissioner of the Admiralty and the Cinque Ports, and the
painter has introduced an allusion to this in the anchor on which the Earl
rests his hand.^
Two years after this a son (Josceline) was born to him, who succeeded
to the title and estates on the death of his father, in 1668 ; he, however,
died in Italy two years later, and with him the direct male line of the
Percies came to an end ; Northumberland House and the other properties
of the family descending to his only daughter Elizabeth Percy, who had
been married when a mere child of twelve to Henry Cavendish, Earl
of Ogle, son of Henry, Duke of Newcastle. This boy, who had assumed
the arms and name of Percy, died, however, in 1680, before he and his
girl wife had lived together, and Lady Elizabeth was then married, in
1681, to Thomas Thynne of Longleat, the " Tom of Ten Thousand,"
and the Issachar of Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel, who was murdered
in the Haymarket, on February 12, 1682, by Count Koningsmarck who
aspired to the hand of the heiress — a brutal deed of which the circum-
stances are too well known to require recapitulation here, and which is
recorded on Thynne's monument in Westminster Abbey.
Lady Elizabeth had never lived with Thynne, and in the May following
his murder, was wedded to Charles Seymour, sixth Duke of Somerset, so
that, as has been pointed out, before the age of seventeen she was twice a
virgin widow and three times a wife.
The Duke of Somerset, of whose imperious manner Swift has left
a record, was known as the proud Duke," and here at Northumberland
• Mr. Blomfield, in his Renaissance Architecture in England, reminds us that John Webb
was doing work for the tenth Earl, at Northumberland House, in 1657-8.
^ He appears to have met his match in at least two other members of the Seymour
family — one a Baronet, and the other James Seymour, the painter, of whom Walpole tells
a well-known anecdote. See Anecdotes of Painting.
54 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
House he and his Duchess lived in something approaching regal state,
until the death of the latter in 1722. The Duke, four years later, married
Lady Charlotte Finch, daughter of the second Earl of Nottingham, and
died in 1748 ; when he was succeeded in the occupancy of Northumberland
House by his son, the seventh Duke, who was then no less than sixty-four
years of age. The year after his accession he was created Earl of Northum-
berland, and having no male children, the remainder was made to Sir
Hugh Smithson, who had married the Earl's only daughter, and who
was, in 1766, raised to the Dukedom.
As we have seen, the garden front of Northumberland House had
been added by the first Earl of Suffolk ; it was, however, rebuilt in 1642,
by the tenth Earl of Northumberland, from designs by Inigo Jones.'
Evelyn, going to see some of the art treasures collected here, on June 9,
1658, thus speaks of them and incidentally refers to the new river front :
" I went to see the Earl of Northumberland's pictures, whereof that of ye
Venetian Senators (the Cornaro Family) was one of the best of Titian's,
and another of Andrea del Sarto, viz., a Madonna, Christ, St. John, and
an old woman ; a St. Catherine of Da Vinci, with divers portraits of Van
Dyke ; a nativity of Georgione ; the last of our blessed Kings and ye
Duke of York, by Lely ; a rosarie by ye famous Jesuits of Bruxelles, and
severall more. This was in Suffolk House ; ye new front towards ye
gardens is tollerable, were it not drown'd by a too massie and clumsie pair
of stayres of stone, without any neat invention."
The addition made to the house by the tenth Earl anticipated the
various improvements it underwent at the hands of successive owners of
the property. Thus the Duke of Somerset formed a gallery, to which Hugh
Smithson, first Duke of that line, added, besides facing the quadrangle
with stone ; these latter improvements were carried out under the direction
of Mylne, the architect, who also added the pavilion, in 1765 ; indeed so
many alterations were made to the house, particularly about 1748 to 1752,
that much of its original character was even then lost, and the fire which
took place here in 1780, wholly destroyed the Charing Cross front;
whereupon Daniel Garrett completed the work of restoration by re-
building this portion of the palace.
According to a contemporary account, the fire " broke out about five
in the morning, and raged till eight, in which time it burnt from the east
end, where it began, to the west. Among the apartments consumed were
those of Dr. Percy, Dean of Carlisle . . . the greatest part of whose
valuable Library was, however, fortunately saved."
On the rebuilt fa9ade which so many of us remember, the famous
• There is a view of this by Wale in Dodsley's London.
NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE 55
leaden lion designed by Carter/ which had stood, from 1752, on the
earlier front, was replaced in its former position. In 1774 a further
addition was made to the house by the erection of the ball-room, from
the designs of Robert Adair, the interior of which resembled one of those
magnificent apartments which are the glory of Italian palaces. Its
walls were covered with large canvases, among which were Mengs' copies
of Raphael's "School of Athens," "The Assembly of the Gods," and
" The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche," in the Farnesina, and Caracci's
*' Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne " ; its decorations were elaborate with
massive carvings and gildings, and into its beautifully sculptured over-
mantle was let a portrait of the Duke. In the deep window recesses
stood costly works of art, noticeable among them being the famous S6vres
vase now at Sion.
Hardly less splendid was the drawing-room, with its gorgeously
painted ceiling, its medallions being from the brush of Angelica Kauffmann,
its immense mirrors, and the great crystal chandelier that helped to light
up a thousand objects of beauty and artistic taste.
A writer in Old and New London, who probably had an opportunity
of seeing the interior for himself, has left the following account of it :
"The vestibule of the interior was 82 feet long, ornamented with Doric
columns. Each end communicated with a staircase, leading to the
principal apartments facing the garden and the Thames. They consisted
of several spacious rooms fitted up in the most elegant manner, em-
bellished with paintings, among which might be found the well-known
' Cornaro Family ' by Titian . . . for which Algernon, Earl of Northum-
berland, is stated to have given Vandyck 1000 guineas, and a beautiful
vase; 'St. Sebastian,' by Guercino ; 'The Adoration of the Shepherds,'
by Bassano, and others by well-known masters, &c. The grand staircase
consisted of a single flight of thirteen moulded vein marble steps, and two
flights of sixteen steps with a centre landing 22 feet by 6 feet, two
circular plinths, and a handsome and richly gilt ormolu scroll balustrade,
with moulded Spanish mahogany hand-rails."
Although this is rather like the description in a sale particular, it is not
uninteresting, as giving some idea of what the interior of this great house
was like, although the account hardly does justice to the magnificence of
the staircase as it appears from contemporary sketches.-
Among other interesting objects that once graced the rooms was the
' Taylor, in his Fitie Ar/s, says " Laurent Delvaux, who worked with Bird and Scheetnaker,
designed the Lion."
"- Macky, in \\\i Journey through England, pubhshed in 1714, says of Northumberland
House : " It's a noble square court with a garden running down to the riverside ; the Front to
the Street is Princely, and the apartments answer his (the Duke's) grandeur."
56 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
tapestry, designed by Zuccarelli, and worked in Soho Square, in 1758;
the two cabinets of marbles and gems, once the property of Louis XIV.,
and the Sevres vase, mentioned before and now at Sion, painted with a
design of Diana and her nymphs disarming Cupid, and presented to the
second Duke when he was Ambassador at Paris, by Charles X.
Apart from the great entertainments held at various times in this veri-
table palace — one of which, given in honour of Queen Charlotte's brother,
in 1762, is described by Walpole as "a pompous festino," when " not only
the whole house, but the garden, was illuminated, and was quite a fairy
scene," and "arches and pyramids of light alternately surrounded the
enclosure " — one or two events of more general interest have taken place
here. Thus it was thither, in the spring of 1660, that, according to
Clarendon, General Monk was invited, with the Earl of Manchester,
Hollis, Sir William Waller, &c., by Earl Algernon,^ and here in secret
conference with them some of those measures were concerted which led
to the speedy restoration of the monarchy. Here, Oliver Goldsmith once
waited on the Duke, and mistook one of his gorgeously attired menials
for the great man himself; here, on another occasion, through his friend
Dr. Percy, he had an interview with his Grace, then just going as Lord-
Lieutenant into Ireland, and who asking the poet what he could do for him,
received the answer that he (Goldsmith) " had a brother there a clergy-
man that stood in need of help, but that for himself he required nothing " ;
much to the astonishment of Sir John Hawkins, who tells the story, and
calls Goldsmith an idiot for thus trifling with his fortunes. And from
here, on one occasion, in 1762, Horace Walpole set out with Lady Nor-
thumberland, the Duke of York, Lady Mary Coke, and Lord Hertford,
all in one hackney-coach, " to hear the mysterious rappings of the Cock
Lane ghost " ; while at least two great funeral processions have started
from this house : the first being that of the third Duke, who was buried
at Westminster in February 1847, when the pageant reached from
Northumberland House to the west door of the Abbey ; and the other
that of the fourth Duke (in February 1865), who was buried with similar
pomp and circumstance.
Northumberland House, as a victim doomed to destruction, seems to
have been regarded with envious eyes for many years. In 1845, when the
Railway mania was at its height, a report was circulated that the stately
pile was to be bought en bloc by the South- Western Railway ; while in
1866, the Metropolitan Board of Works did endeavour to persuade
the then Duke to sell, but without success. Six years later, however,
^ The custody of the Royal children had been committed to him, whence their sojourn at
Sion.
NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE 57
terms were come to ; when the house and its grounds were sold for
£500,000, and powers to form a street, &c., on its site obtained. In
1874 the transaction was completed, and the materials of the fabric were
subsequently sold by auction ; ^ the great staircase being given away for
^{[360, and the rest of the building materials fetching something over
;r6ooo.
The contents — pictures, and furniture, and china — ^were dispersed be-
tween Alnwick, Sion, and the Duke's new house in Grosvenor Place ; and
thus " this great historical house, commenced by a Howard, continued by a
Percy, and completed by a Seymour " — which had been the residence for
two and a half centuries of some of the greatest families in the land, and
which was, besides, the sole survivor of those Strand Palaces whose fortunes
we have been following — was demolished to make way for the thorough-
fare known as Northumberland Avenue leading to the Embankment.
Apparently building speculation saw in this a splendid opportunity for
making money, as the big hotels which have sprung up on its site have
shown to be the case, otherwise the removal of some of the houses and
shops on the west of Northumberland House, and the acquisition of a
portion of its gardens would have probably proved equally suitable to
whatever public requirements could demand. For this reason the de-
struction of this splendid palace was one of the most regrettable of
those acts of vandalism which the benighted period of the early seventies
witnessed.'^
• Among them must have been the decorative work which Adam designed, such as the
slab for the drawing-room fireplace, a drawing of which preserved in the Soane Museum is
dated July 9, 1774, and the wonderful decorations of the drawing-room, the colour scheme
of which was in red and green. In the Soane Museum is also a coloured drawing for a circular
table-top designed by Adam, for the Duke.
^ In Smith's Antiquities of Westminster is an illustration of the fagade of Northumberland
House, and there are other innumerable views of the great house extant.
CHAPTER III
BURLINGTON HOUSE AND OTHERS
IN this chapter I want to say something about five great houses which
once proudly reared their heads in the West End, as we have seen so
many do in the East and in that part of the town which once partook
of something of the attributes of both — the Strand.
Of these palaces, two, Burlington House and Clarendon House, stood
in Piccadilly, and the name of the former is perpetuated in the Burling-
ton House of our own day ; a third occupied the site of the present
Buckingham Palace ; ^ while two more were once the glory of Blooms-
bury — Southampton or Bedford House, and Montagu House, where the
British Museum, which stands on its exact site, now spreads its ample
proportions.
There are, I am aware, several others that might by a little extension
of the word be included among the past private palaces of the West
End ; but I am unwilling to make this extension, because, in the first
place, we shall have quite enough to do to examine those I have selected ;
and again because directly one begins to enlarge ones boundaries, as it
were, it becomes proportionately difBcult to discriminate between the
relative merits of the many houses that would necessarily have some
individual claims to be included.
BURLINGTON HOUSE
I will begin with Burlington House, which, like so many other great
mansions, did not spring into existence in the completed form known to
us by the later engravings of it which exist, but was the result of building
evolution ; in any case, however, the original structure was sufficiently
imposing, as Kip's excellent view of it attests.
The ground on which it was erected was, at the period of the
' I do not forget that Kensington Palace was formerly a private possession, but when it
belonged to the Finches it was but '' a neat villa," according to Evelyn, and its chief interest is
so largely connected with it as a Royal palace, that I do not include it for these reasons.
S8
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BURLINGTON HOUSE 59
Restoration, open country ; but a few years later three stately residences
arose in this locaHty : Berkeley, Clarendon, and Burlington Houses.
There is some question as to who built and first occupied the original
house, for although Lord Burlington was inhabiting it in 1668, there
is reason to believe that he had been preceded in its occupancy by that
Sir John Denham whose name is kept alive by his poem of " Cooper's
Hill," and whose fame rests on the two famous lines on the Thames which
are to be found in it. Pepys, writing on February 20, 1665, speaks of
riding to see the building operations of Clarendon House, and mentions
that Denham was beginning a house on its east side ; while, on Sep-
tember 28, 1668, he records visiting " my Lord Burlington's house, the
first time I was ever there, it being the house built by Sir John Denham,
next to Clarendon House."
Denham was, as we know. Surveyor to the King, and it is probable
that he designed the house, with the help of John Webb, the pupil of
Inigo Jones, not for himself but for Lord Burlington. Denham's share
in its construction was, I expect, small enough, for Evelyn remarks on
one occasion that he knew Sir John to be a better poet than architect,
and it is likely that Webb was the ghost that provided the designs.
It has, indeed, been suggested that as about this time Denham was
on the eve of his marriage with the lovely Margaret Brook, who soon
after became the Duke of York's mistress and died mysteriously of poison
the following year,^ he prepared this house for her reception ; but in
those days even poets filling public offices were hardly in a position to
stand such an expense as must have been entailed by so magnificent a
building as Burlington House, and I think it much more probable that
Sir John was the nominal, John Webb the real, architect, and that the
work was undertaken for Richard Boyle, who had been created Earl of
Burlington in 1644.
Lord Burlington's fame has been somewhat eclipsed by that of his
father, the great Earl of Cork, and of his brother, the famous Robert
Boyle, but he filled a number of important offices, under Charles H.,
and had, in 1642, been made Commander of the Forces in Ireland ; while
his Earldom was the reward of his share in bringing about the Restora-
tion. He married, in 1635, Lady Elizabeth CHfford, only daughter and
heiress of Henry, fifth Earl of Cumberland, and died in 1698, having
occupied Burlington House for some thirty years as a town residence.
According to Walpole, when asked why he had erected the house so far
out of town, he replied that he was determined to have no building
' It was reported that Denham was responsible for her " taking off," and Anthony Hamilton
specifically accuses him of the crime ; in any case Sir John himself died mad, in 1668.
6o THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
beyond him ; he meant, on the north, for of course Berkeley House
was on his west. The point of his remark is obvious enough, when we
examine Kip's view of BurHngton House taken about the beginning of
the eighteenth century ; for by it we see that its large gardens extend
north to open fields, then known as Conduit Mead, whereas on its east
are a number of houses, and the spot Lord Burlington chose was just to
the west of these, which enabled him to enjoy an uninterrupted prospect
to the north. Lord Burlington was succeeded by his grandson, Charles
Boyle, who died young, only having enjoyed the title six years, when,
in 1704, his son Richard, then not quite nine years old, succeeded him
as third Earl. It is with this peer that the house is chiefly identified,
and it is to him the mind turns when the title of Burlington occurs ;
for not only was he a man of singular taste and refinement, but he was
also one who had he not been an Earl would have been known as a
great architect. As it is, his fame as the latter is sufficiently established
to enable him to take a high place among the amateur architects of this
country.
One of the earliest of those who brought back from the Grand Tour
something more than a mere confused remembrance of foreign towns
and strange manners. Lord Burlington was possessed of a mind of singular
receptivity, and the architectural beauties he had seen and carefully
studied in Italy, fired him with the desire of emulating on the banks
of the Thames what had excited his admiration on the banks of the
Tiber. Nor had his travels resulted in awakening merely admiration ;
he set himself to learn the elements of the art which had fascinated him,
and his house at Chiswick, General Wade's mansion in Cork Street,
Lord Harrington's so-called villa at Petersham, and the splendid ball-
room in Lord Cowper's house in St. James's Square, are a few of the
results of his assiduous application and natural gifts.
Nor were his interests confined to this art : men of letters found
in him as open-handed a patron as did architects and artists ; and if
he lodged Kent in Burlington House and patronised Colin Campbell,
he was as generous and friendly to Pope and Gay, Arbuthnot and Swift.
Walpole in speaking of the architects of the reign of George II. thus
mentions Lord Burlington : " Never was protection and great wealth
more generously and more judiciously diffused than by this great person,
who had every quality of a genius and artist, except envy. Though
his own designs were more classic than Kent's,^ he entertained him in
his house till his death, and was more studious to extend his friend's
fame than his own. Nor was his munificence confined to himself and
' " For Burlington unbiassed knows thy worth," writes Gay, addressing Kent.
BURLINGTON HOUSE 6i
his own houses and gardens. He spent immense sums in contributing
to public works, and was known to choose that the expense should fall
on himself rather than that his country should be deprived of some
beautiful edifices. His enthusiasm for Inigo Jones was so active, that
he repaired the church of Covent Garden because it was the production
of that great master, and purchased a gateway^ at Beaufort Garden in
Chelsea, and transported the identical stones to Chiswick with religious
attachment. With the same zeal for pure architecture he assisted Kent
in publishing the designs for Whitehall, and gave a beautiful edition of
the antique baths from the drawings of Palladio, whose papers he pur-
chased with great cost."
It is a fropos of this publication that Pope in his epistle " Of the Use
of Riches," addressed to Lord Burlington, says :
" You show us Rome was glorious, not profuse,
And pompous buildings once were things of use,"
while Gay was not behind his brother poet in hymning the praises of
a patron whom they both could flatter with truth :
" While you, my Lord, bid stately piles ascend "
he apostrophises him in his " Epistle to the Earl of Burlington."
Such was the man who now set about to reconstruct the fine house
which his great-grandfather had built. He associated with himself,
in the work, Colin Campbell, a well-known architect of the day, who
filled the post of Surveyor of the Works at Greenwich Hospital, and
had designed Wanstead and Mereworth. The Earl's scheme did not
include the demolition of the earlier house, which was of red brick, but
its incasing with stone, and the conversion of the bedrooms of the first
floor into State rooms, by the expedient of increasing their height ; the
model he evidently took for the work being the Palazzo Porto at Vicenza
which had been designed by Palladio.
It would have been difficult to allot the share which the Earl and
his architect respectively had in this reconstruction had not the latter
specifically indicated the portions for which he was alone responsible,
in his Vitruvius Britannicus published in 1725, while Lord Burlington
was yet living. By this we see that Campbell designed the general plan
of the house, but not the stables, which he says " were built by another
architect ' before I had the honour of being called to his Lordship's
^ That now in front of Devonshire House.
' Who this was is not clear, but Mr. .Spiers in his interesting article on Burlington House in
the Architectural Review, for October 1904, thinks it probable that it was Giacomo Leoni, who
was brought to this country by Lord Burlington previous to 1715.
62 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
service," and he adds, " the front of the house, the conjunction from
thence to the offices, the great gate and street wall were all designed and
executed by me." ^
Fault has been found with this wall, which, considering that it was
merely a wall, could hardly have been more decorative, by Malcolm,
and even he seems rather to have objected to it as hiding the mansion
than from any intrinsic deficiencies in its design ; but Ralph," who is
in general hypercritical about the architecture of London in his day,
speaks of " the most expensive wall in England," as he calls it, in a flatter-
ing manner, and remarks that " nothing material can be objected to
it, and much may be said in its praise. It is certain the height is wonder-
fully well proportioned to the length, and the decorations are both simple
and magnificent."
But if there was any difference of opinion about this part of the
scheme, there seems to have been a perfect consensus of praise bestowed
on the beautiful colonnade which Walpole, on the grounds that Campbell
lays no claim to its design, which he certainly might be thought to have
done had he had anything to do with its invention, attributes to Lord
Burlington himself. Chambers considers this " one of the finest pieces
of architecture in Europe," which is perhaps rather hyperbolic, but
there is no doubt that it formed one of the chief beauties of the new
mansion, and it is a pity that it was ever removed. As Mr. Spiers says,
it is not improbable that Bernini's famous colonnade in front of St.
Peter's at Rome may have suggested the idea to Lord Burhngton of
forming the approach to his mansion on a similar but of course much
smaller scale ; and as to who was actually responsible for this fine piece
of work, the same authority makes the suggestion that the original idea
was due to Lord Burhngton, who, however, not being a draughtsman
himself, may have instructed Leoni to draw out plans and elevations
which when complete were probably handed to Colin Campbell " to
work out in harmony with the great gate which he had designed. Colin
Campbell therefore probably set out the whole of the work and super-
intended its erection, but he refrained from claiming it as his own for
the reasons just stated." ^
As is the case when any new building arises, particularly if it be in
advance of the times, much criticism was expended over the splendid
• In Campbell's publication are given illustrations of the facade, the gateway into
Piccadilly, and the ground plan of the house.
- Critical Survey of Public Buildings, 1728, pp. 23-4.
^ Mr. Spiers's learned and valuable article, in which technical detail is set forth in a most
interesting manner, is illustrated by a number of elevations, plans, and pictures of the interior of
the mansion, including the great gate and the colonnade.
BURLINGTON HOUSE 63
structure, and even the great name of Hogarth has to be included among
its detractors, for, in 1724, he produced a plate called "The Taste of
the Town," in which he pictorially attacked Lord Burlington and those
who assisted him in the designs ; Kent and Campbell being introduced,
as well as Lord Burlington himself, into the drawing ; ^ while an epigram
supposed to have been written either by Lord Chesterfield or Lord
Hervey runs :
" Possess'd of one great hall for state,
Without a room to sleep or eat ;
How well you build let flattery tell.
And all the world how ill you dwell." ^
But Lord Burlington had not much cause to be irritated at such
mild censure, when so much praise was continually being poured forth
over his work. Pope asks
"Who plants like Bathurst and who builds like Boyle ?"
and Gay, in his " Trivia," has these lines, in which, after bemoaning the
loss of the great houses in the Strand, he says :
" Yet Burlington's fair palace still remains ;
Beauty within, without proportion reigns.
There oft I enter (but with cleaner shoes),
For Burlington's beloved by ev'ry Muse " ;
and in his " Epistle to Paul Methuen," he cries :
" While Burlington's proportion'd column rise,
Does not he stand the gaze of envious eyes ?
Doors, windows, are condemned by passing fools,
Who know not that they damn Palladio's rules."
And, to give one more example, here is Walpole's criticism on the famous
colonnade : " As we have few samples of architecture more antique and
imposing than that colonnade, I cannot help mentioning the effect it
had on myself. I had not only never seen it, but had never heard of
it, at least with any attention, when soon after my return from Italy,
I was invited to a ball at Burlington House. As I passed under the gate
' It was afterwards called " Masquerades and Operas, Burlington Gate," and is known as
" the small masquerade ticket." Mr. Wheatley draws attention to the prophetic labelling of the
front gate, "Academy of Arts."
^ It was certainly Hervey who said of Lord Burlington's house at Chiswick that " it was too
small to live in, and too large to hang to one's watch-chain."
64 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
by night, it could not strike me. At daybreak looking out of the window
to see the sun rise, I was surprised with the vision of the colonnade that
fronted me. It seemed one of those edifices in fairy tales that are raised
by genii in a night's time." ^
There is no doubt that whoever wrote the epigram I have before
quoted, had some reason for suggesting that everything had been sacrificed
to the reception-rooms, for the upper chambers and those on the ground
floor were small and not very convenient, but this was so characteristic
of the period that one wonders so much was made of it ; certainly Lord
Chesterfield did better when he built his fine house, which may be a
reason for attributing the lines, quoted above, to him ; but the reception-
rooms were as splendid in proportion as they were magnificent in decora-
tion ; the richness of the gilding was enhanced by the deep tones of
the solid mahogany doors and the graceful modelling of the marble
chimneypieces. The ceilings and even some of the walls were beauti-
fied by the paintings of Marco Ricci and Sebastian Ricci, the former
being responsible for the architectural portions and the backgrounds, and
the latter introducing the figures, as well as by the work of Sir James
Thornhill, who if he, as is affirmed, really prompted Hogarth to produce
his depreciation of the exterior of the house, made a shabby return for
the Earl's patronage.
During Lord Burlington's life, the great mansion in Piccadilly seems
to have been a sort of open house for the genius and talent of the time.^
Pope and Gay, as we have seen, were perpetual visitors, so was the
redoubtable Dean of St. Patrick's, and a not very pleasant, but I am
bound to say highly characteristic, story is told of one of his visits here
when he first met the Countess.* Here it is, as given on the authority
of Mrs. Pilkington in her Memoirs. " Being in London, Swift went to
dine with the newly married Earl of Burlington, who neither introduced
his wife nor mentioned her name, willing, it is supposed, to have some
diversion. After dinner the Dean said, ' Lady Burlington, I hear you
can sing : sing me a song.' The lady thought this very unceremonious
and refused, when Swift said she should sing or he would make her.
' Why, madam, I suppose you take me for one of your poor hedge
parsons ; sing when I bid you.' The Earl laughed at this freedom,
but the lady was so vexed that she burst into tears and retired. Swift's
* Anecdotes of Painting.
- Among the pictures formerly hanging here, Walpole mentions a portrait of Rousseau the
painter by Le Fevre, as well as a prospect of London before the Fire showing the great houses
in the Strand, by Thomas Van Wyck, and a view of the parade in St. James's Park, with
Charles and his courtiers and women in masks walking.
^ She was Lady Dorothy Saville, daughter and heiress of William, Marquis of Halifax, and
had married Lord Burlington in 1721.
BURLINGTON HOUSE 65
first words on seeing her again were, ' Pray, madam, are you as proud
and ill-natured now as when I saw you last ? ' To which she answered
with great good-humour, ' No, Mr. Dean, I will sing to you, if you
please.' From this time Swift conceived a great esteem for the lady."
One's power of criticism is paralysed at such conduct, and one hardly
knows which to wonder at most, the Earl's indifferent attitude or the
extraordinarily forgiving spirit of his Countess. Swift's brutality is too
well known to excite particular comment.
It is pleasant to think that not many such characters had the run
of Burlington House. The great Handel was an honoured guest, and
occupied apartments here from 1715 till 1718, during which time he
composed his operas of Amadis, Theseus, and Pastor Fido, and here he
frequently met Dr. Arbuthnot who, himself, had studied music as well
as most other things.
Later, Faustina, the singer, during the time of her great feud with
Cuzzoni, must frequently have been here, for Lady Burlington was
the chief of her partisans, as Lady Pembroke was of those of her rival ;
and, in 1744, when the celebrated dancer Violette, who became after-
wards Mrs. Garrick, came to this country, she was included among the
Earl's " family," and resided, at, I hasten to say, the Countess's invita-
tion, in Burlington House ; Kent, who was also an inmate of the mansion,
designed the tickets for Violette's benefit ; and on her marriage with
the great actor. Lady Burlington gave her a splendid dowry.
Lord Burlington died in 1753,^ without an heir, and the property
then passed to Lord Hartington, who became fourth Duke of Devonshire,
and who had married, in 1748, Lady Charlotte Boyle, Lord Burlington's
daughter.
A later resident here was the third Duke of Portland, who had married
Lady Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of the above-mentioned Duke of
Devonshire, and when the Duke of Portland became First Lord of the
Treasury, in 1783, under the auspices of Charles James Fox, Burlington
House was the chief meeting-place of the party, as Devonshire House
became later. In 1807, during the Duke's second administration, after
the fusion of the Whigs with Pitt, it occupied a like position, except
that Tories reigned where Whigs had reigned before.
The Duke of Portland died in 1809, and six years later, the sixth Duke
of Devonshire sold Burlington House to his uncle Lord Henry Cavendish,
created Earl of Burlington in 1831,- for ^75,000.
' He is supposed to have spent such immense sums on his buildings, and patronage of the
fine arts generally that, in 1738, he is recorded to have sold an income of ^9000 for £200,000,
"which won't pay his debts," says Barber, writing to Swift.
' His grandson, who succeeded him in 1834, became seventh Duke of Devonshire in 1858.
66 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
On taking possession its new owner made a variety of alterations,
although not so many nor such drastic ones as had been anticipated,
and he employed Ware the Architect to carry out the improvements.
Among other things which Ware effected was the building of the well-
known Burlington Arcade, which was completed in 1819. A writer
in the Gentleman' s Magazine waxed mighty humorous over the innova-
tion effected by this Arcade ; but there is no doubt it was the source
of an excellent income to the Cavendishes while they possessed it, which
was till the year 1854, when the sixth Duke of Devonshire sold Burlington
House to the Government for ^^i 40,000. With this its interest as a
private palace ceases, but it will be interesting to rapidly glance at its
later history.
At first, indeed, there appears to have been no particular reason for
the purchase of the place except the very reasonable price at which it
was possible to acquire it, for we find it lent to the University of London
for a time, and later, in 1857, rooms in it were offered to various learned
societies of which the Royal Society alone took advantage, although
afterwards others joined them here, when the University of London,
which still occupies a portion, was moved to the east wing. Many schemes
were formulated both in Parliament and by " the man in the street,"
as to the best mode of disposing of the house and grounds. Some were
for pulling down the former ; others for adding to it : but there seems
to have been a general desire to do away with the wall facing Piccadilly.
The public never has liked walls ; and indeed however picturesque they
may be in the country, where many of those red-brick barriers are things
of beauty in themselves, there is not much to be said for them in London
except that they give an air of pleasant mystery where no real mystery
exists. But this wall was, as we have seen, an exceptional one, yet those
who advocated its preservation seem chiefly to have done so on the ground
that were it demolished the stables and outbuildings of Burlington
House would be exposed. In 1859, however, the Government brought
forward the suggestion that the Royal Academy should leave that portion
of the National Gallery which it had hitherto occupied and be housed
here, and plans were prepared showing the various alterations which
would be necessary to make Burlington House a fitting home for it ;
the Piccadilly front being designed by Barry, who was working in colla-
boration with Banks on the rest of the scheme. A change of Government
put the matter back for several years, but in 1866, the scheme was again
brought forward with various modifications, by which the place was divided
up between the University of London, destined to occupy the new
buildings facing Burlington Gardens ; the Royal Academy to have the
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68 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
mistake he had made in raising this stately pile, and he acknowledged
that " his weakness and vanity more contributed to that gust of envy
that had so violently shaken him, than any misdemeanours that he was
thought to have been guilty of."
A royal grant of land at this spot, and the opportunity of purchasing
a quantity of stone that had been destined for the repair of old St. Paul's,
went hand in hand with his natural inclinations, and could hardly be
regarded, as he suggests, as the cause of his building the palace. Clarendon
was in many respects a great man, but he was also an inordinately
ambitious one, and just as he delighted in being able to call a royal duke
son-in-law, so he was happy in the thought that his London residence
would eclipse those of families in comparison with which his own was
of mushroom growth ; and then he possibly felt himself so secure in
power and the favour of his sovereign that he was indifferent to public
opinion and fearlessly gave into the hands of his enemies the petard which
was to hoist him : certain it is that that was the rock on which he split,
and the populace who saw in it the result of political tergiversation,
were, as they generally are, the more ready to accuse him because of his
arrogance and ostentation, and when they called the place Dunkirk House
or Tangier Hall or Holland House, ^ although they indirectly attacked
his supposed unpatriotic policy, they chiefly aimed their shafts at his
vainglorious parade.
Had historical truths had power to warn him. Clarendon might have
remembered Wolsey's fate and Buckingham's career, but one seldom feels
so secure as when contemplating the adverse fortune of others, and immemor
sepulcri, he ruined himself in building a home in which he experienced
little but sorrow and shame.
The date of the letters-patent by which Charles H. granted to
Clarendon the site on which Clarendon House was to rise, is June 13,
1664, and on that very day, by a curious coincidence when we remember
one of the names afterwards applied to the mansion, Mr. Coventry
suggested to Pepys that he should write the History of the late Dutch
War.
The tract of land thus obtained by Clarendon was a very large one ;
indeed it seems to have extended from Swallow Street to a point down
Piccadilly west of St. James's Street, probably where Berkeley Street
now stands.^ In any case, Lord Clarendon selected the spot immediately
facing St. James's Street for the erection of his house, and building opera-
' Because, says Burnet, he was believed to have received money from the Dutch in order to
heighten his opposition to the war.
' The grant is given in Lister's Li/b of Clatrndon.
CLARENDON HOUSE 69
tions began soon after he had obtained the grant ; no less than three
hundred men being employed on it.
Rugge, in his Diurnal, for August 1664, mentions that eight acres had
then been enclosed for the house and grounds, and in the pages of Pepys
and Evelyn, we can follow the gradual building of the mansion. Thus on
October 15, 1664, Evelyn accompanies Lord and Lady Clarendon to
see the progress of the work ; in the February of the following year,
Pepys rides west to make himself acquainted with the new palace about
which every one was talking — and not talking respectfully ; and he pays
another visit to it, on January 31, 1666, because he had heard so much
about it from Evelyn ; " and indeed," he adds, " it is the finest pile I
ever did see in my life, and will be a glorious house." So impressed
was Samuel with the place that we find him a fortnight later taking Mr.
Hill to see it, when the two friends managed, with some difficulty, to
get on to the roof, whence was obtained " the noblest prospect I ever saw
in my life, Greenwich being nothing to it," says the diarist.
Pepys was notoriously hyperbolic in his appreciation of what pleased
him, but there is no doubt that, as we can see for ourselves from the
extant prints of it, the place must have been magnificent, and even the
sober Evelyn, who had seen the palaces of France and Italy, was in a
rapture of admiration, and in a letter to Lord Cornbury (Clarendon's
son) thus speaks of the house : " If it be not a solecism to give a palace
so vulgar a name, I have never seen a nobler pile. It is without
hyperbole the best contrived, the most useful, graceful, and magnificent
house in England. Here is taste and use, solidity and beauty, most
symmetrically combined together : seriously there is nothing abroad
pleases me better : nothing at home approaches it." But this eulogy
at the gallop was, it must be remembered, addressed to the son
of the builder, and in an entry in his Diary for November 28,
1666, Evelyn's enthusiasm was so much sobered down that although
he still confesses that " it was a goodly pile to see," and " placed most
gracefully," yet he has become critical and can write that there were
" many defects as to ye architecture."
The architect of the house was Pratt, of whom less is known than
we might expect, seeing that he was responsible for so fine a building.
Evelyn had known him in Rome ; and we find him as one of the Com-
missioners for the repair of old St. Paul's Cathedral, deliberating thereon
with Wren, May, and others, including Evelyn himself, on August 27,
1666, when in various matters his judgment differed from that of the
diarist and Wren. Pratt was also the architect of Lord Allington's
house at Horseheath, a building which, according to Lysons, cost no
70 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
less than ^70,000 ; but VValpole does not mention him, nor is his name
to be found in the Dictionary of Natio7ial Biography.
The cost of the house far exceeded the architect's estimate of ^20,000,
and Lord Orrery had reason for his remark made in a letter to Lord
Clarendon, in which he assumes that not the former sum named by the
Chancellor, but the ^40,000 estimated by himself was nearer the actual
figure.
But even this sum must have represented but a portion of the outlay,
for large as it is, and larger still as it was in those days, it would hardly in
itself seem sufficient to justify Lord Clarendon in saying that he had ruined
himself by its expenditure ; but when we remember the splendid way
in which the house was furnished ; the number of fine pictures (about
which I shall have something to say presently) that adorned its walls ;
and the large household that must have been necessary, it is not difficult
to see how even Clarendon's great resources must have been drained.
Popular clamour hardly waited for the paint to dry in Clarendon
House, before it began to vent itself on the place and its possessor ; all
the tribe of petty verse-makers and pamphleteers metaphorically hastened
to besmear the walls with their venom ; and even the common people
were enraged to see so much money expended at a time when the Plague
and the Great Fire, as well as the effects of a disastrous war, and the
extravagance of a frivolous court which they had always with them, were
making sad inroads on their own purses. Like all such clamourers against
personal ostentation and expenditure, they forgot that the money thus
lavished at least passed into general circulation, and that employment was
thus found for many who would have otherwise been idle.
Such considerations could, indeed, hardly be expected to have weight
with men in the seventeenth century, when we find so much of the same
stupid ignorance of facts in those of the twentieth, and the result was that,
in the public prints, nay painted on the very gates of Clarendon House,
were bitter invectives, and attacks which lost much of their point by
being based on ignorant supposition. They are hardly worth quoting,
as they all, more or less, harp on the same string ; the building of the
house and the ill-gotten gains with which it was presumed that Lord
Clarendon paid for it. Even Andrew Marvell, who should have known
better, was represented among more insignificant assailants of the Lord
Chancellor, and his " Clarendon House-Warming " is little better than the
others so far as poetical merit goes, and none at all in sentiment.
Pepys mentions the actual violence done to the house itself, in a
passage in his Diary, dated June 14, 1667. " Mr. Hater tells me,"
he writes, " that some rude people have been, as he hears, at my Lord
CLARENDON HOUSE 71
Clarendon's, where they have cut down the trees before his house, and
broke his windows ; and a gibbet either set up before or painted upon
his gate, and these three words writ : ' Three sights to be seen : Dunkirke,
Tangier, and a barren Queene.' "
Nothing, perhaps, more plainly shows that Clarendon was made
the scapegoat for every ill that befell the nation, than the last implication,
since he opposed the marriage of Charles with Catherine for the very
reason for which he was supposed to have urged it on. One wonders
that the Plague and the Great Fire were not also laid to his charge !
But Lord Clarendon enjoyed, if he ever really did enjoy, the fruits
of his expenditure but a short time ; such popular anger could hardly
be mistaken, and the action of Parliament soon showed that the fury
of his enemies was not confined to those in the street. In 1667, he was
impeached, and on November 29th he fled the country, sending his
carriage and servants to York House, Twickenham, to put his enemies
off the scent. With the help of Charles, whose family had always found
him a devoted friend, he might conceivably have weathered the storm ;
but he had a stronger enemy even than the Parliament or the people,
in the person of the notorious Lady Castlemaine, and Charles but followed
the traditional policy of his family in sacrificing to insistence those with-
out whom their power would have been a negligible quantity ; and so, like
Wolsey, Clarendon fell primarily through the influence of a woman.
Evelyn has a pathetic entry in his Diary, in which he relates how he
went " to visit the late Lord Chancellor," a few hours before his flight.
" I found him," he says, " in his garden, at his new built palace, sitting
in his gowt wheelchayre, and seeing the gates setting up towards the
north and the fields. He looked and spake very disconsolately. After
some while deploring his condition to me, I took my leave. Next morning
I heard he was gone."
The head and front of his offending being removed, his son. Lord
Cornbury, seems to have been left in peaceful possession of the great
house in Piccadilly, and here Evelyn visited him, on December 20,
1668 ; and thus speaks of the circumstance : " I din'd with my Lord
Cornbury at Clarendon House, now bravely furnished, especially with
the pictures of most of our ancient and modern witts, poets, philosophers,
famous and learned Englishmen ; which collection of the Chancellor's
I much commended, and gave his Lordship a catalogue of more to be
added."
Of these pictures we are luckily able also, with the aid of Evelyn,
to obtain some idea, from a letter he wrote to Pepys, probably after the
visit just recorded. Although the list supplied is obviously not exhaustive.
72 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
it no doubt contains the most important of those pictorial decorations
for which Clarendon House was famed, and which largely consisted of,
as Macaulay says, " the masterpieces of Vandyck which had once been
the property of ruined Cavaliers," housed in the " palace which reared
its long and stately front right opposite to the humbler residence of
our Kings."
Here is the list as given by Evelyn : " There were at full length,
the greate Duke of Buckingham, the brave Sir Horace and Francis Vere,
Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Philip Sidney, the greate Earl of Leicester,
Treasurer Buckhurst, Burleigh, Walsingham, Cecil, Lord Chancellor
Bacon, EUesmere, and I think all the late Chancellors and grave Judges
in the reignes of Queen Elizabeth and her successors, James and Charles L
For there was Treasurer Weston, Cottington, Duke Hamilton, the mag-
nificent Earle of Carlisle, Earles of Carnarvon, Bristol, Holland, Lindsey,
Northumberland, Kingston, and Southampton ; Lords Falkland and
Digby (I name them promiscuously as they come into my memorie),
and of Charles the second, besides the Royal Family, the Dukes of Albe-
marle and Newcastle ; Earles of Darby, Shrewsbury, St. Albans, the
brave Montrose, Sandwich, Manchester, &c. ; and of the Coife, Sir
Edward Coke, Judge Berkeley, Bramston, Sir Orlando Bridgman, Jeofry
Palmer, Selden, Vaughan, Sir Robert Cotton, Dugdale, Mr. Camden,
Mr. Hales of Eton. The Archbishops Abbot and Laud, Bishops Juxon,
Sheldon, Morley, and Duppa ; Dr. Sanderson, Brownrig, Dr. Donne,
Chillingworth, and severall of the Cleargie, and others of the former
and present age. For there were the pictures of Fisher, Fox, Sir Thomas
More, Tho. Lord Cromwell, Dr. Nowel, &c. And what was most agree-
able to his Lordship's humour, Old Chaucer, Shakespere, Beaumont
and Fletcher, who were both in one piece, Spenser, Mr. Waller, Cowley,
Hudibras, which last he plac'd in the roome where he us'd to eate and
dine in public."
What a gallery ! There is hardly a notable name in three reigns
absent from the collection ; but for the great Chancellor the assemblage
must have awakened sad memories often enough ; and some of those
heads must surely have given him food for reflection ; how many of
them had not fallen on the scaffold ; how many of them had not sacrificed
everything for the cause of which he was the strenuous partisan ; how
many had not experienced what little faith there was to be placed in
princes ! One wonders if the destiny of some of these did not some-
times awaken fear and apprehension in his mind ; when he gazed on
the features of the " greate Duke of Buckingham," and Lord Chancellor
Bacon, did no premonition of his own fate force itself upon him ; did
CLARENDON HOUSE 73
he believe that " vaulting ambition " in his case would not o'erleap
itself ? Surely the sad eyes of the King he served so faithfully, and
those of the Strafford he had known so well, must have told him some-
thing ! When he sat in his " gowt wheelchayre," and heard the rabble
clamouring at his gates and tearing down the trees, the fate of Laud
and Montrose, and Falkland's bitter death should have warned him.
No wonder from such a sad assemblage his " general humour " was to
turn to the contemplation of old Dan Chaucer, and Shakespere's mighty
brow ; the courtly Spenser and the gentle Cowley ; no wonder he selected
the humorous features of Butler to smile upon him while he dined, and
perhaps snatched a respite from the troubles that compassed him round,
by the thought of that book which Pepys tried so hard to like, and which
was as potent as the sword of cavaliers to bring a King into his own again.
How many of these " full lengths " must now be hanging in the
great houses we shall presently be examining, it is impossible to say.
Perhaps that of Ellesmere is identical with the portrait which now hangs
in Bridgewater House ; did those wonderful presentments of the Duke
of Hamilton and the Earl of Holland which are to-day in the dining-
room of Montagu House, originally hang on my Lord Chancellor's walls ?
Such speculation is, of course, idle, but we know that some of the repre-
sentatives of those cavaliers whose portraits found their way to Clarendon
House made attempts to obtain at least replicas of their former posses-
sions, and there is on record that " Earl Paulett was an humble petitioner
to the son of the Chancellor for leave to take a copy of his grandfather's
and grandmother's pictures that had been plundered from Hinton St.
George ; which was obtained with great difficulty, because it was thought
that copies might lessen the value of the originals."
Lord Cornbury appears to have let Clarendon House to the Duke
of Ormonde, soon after his father's flight ; at any rate the Duke was living
here when Colonel Blood made his daring attempt to kidnap him on
the night of December 6, 1670, as he was proceeding up St. James's
Street after having attended the Prince of Orange, then on a visit to
this country, to the City. Blood and his myrmidons had actually suc-
ceeded in getting possession of the Duke's person and conveying him
some way past Berkeley House towards Knightsbridge, when the latter
by a desperate effort unhorsed the man who was guarding him, and
struggled with him on the ground until rescued by his porter and others.
On Lord Clarendon's death, in 1674, ^^^ mansion * was sold, in the
' William Skillman engraved a view of the faqade of Albemarle House, as it was afterwards
called.
74 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
following year, to the second Duke of Albemarle, the son of the great
Monk, for ^^26,000, which sum, knowing as we do what the place cost, seems
a very reasonable one. In the Calendar of State Papers, for November
1675, is a petition of the Duke of Albemarle's to the King, under these
circumstances : The Duke points out that when the original grant was
made to Clarendon on August 23, 1664, the property was described as
being in the parish of St. James's in the Fields, whereas it was properly
in that of St. Martin's in the Fields, and he desires that, as he has since
purchased it, the original grant may be confirmed in accurate terms, so
as to substantiate his title ; which, by another entry, we find acceded to.
But the Duke was an extravagant man, besides being notoriously
intemperate—" burnt to a coal with hot liquor," is the comment of a
contemporary — and his monetary difficulties becoming acute, he was,
perforce, obliged to part with the place, then known as Albemarle House,
to Sir Thomas Bond and others for, it is said,^ the still further reduced
sum of ^20,000 ; although, as we shall see, the price has been placed at
a much higher figure by Evelyn.
Bond and his syndicate bought the house for the specific purpose of
pulling it down and developing the estate, and Bond Street and Albe-
marle Street perpetuate the names of its owners.^
Evelyn, writing on September 18, 1683, thus records the final in-
carnation of the house where the great Clarendon and the scarcely less
celebrated Ormonde had for a short time dwelt.
" After dinner," he writes, " I walked to survey the sad demolition
of Clarendon House, that costly and only sumptuous palace of the late
Lord Chancellor Hyde, where I have often been so cheerful with him,
and sometimes so sad. . . . This stately palace is decreed to ruin to
support the prodigious waste the Duke of Albemarle had made of his
estate. He sold it to the highest bidder, and it fell to certain rich
bankers and mechanics, who gave for it and the ground ' about ^35,000 ;
they designe a new towne, as it were, and a most magnificent piazza.
'Tis said they have already materials towards it with what they sold of
the house alone, more worth than what they paid for it. See the
vicissitude of earthly things ! I was astonished at this demolition, nor
less at the little army of labourers and artificers levelling the ground, laying
foundations, at an expense of _^200,ooo, if they perfect their designe." *
' In the Loyal Protestant and True Domes tick Intelligencer.
' It is said that the materials of the mansion fetched more than was paid for the property.
^ Said to have extended to twenty-four acres in 1688.
» Archer, in his Vestiges of Old London, 1851, says that the pillars flanking the entrance of
the Three Kings Livery Stables, in Piccadilly, were, at the time he published his work, the sole
existing remains of the once stately Clarendon House.
BUCKINGHAM HOUSE 75
BUCKINGHAM HOUSE
When James I., in 1609, attempted to create an industry by the
importation of silkworms into this country, the spot chosen for the
planting of the necessary mulberry trees was part of that on which the
present Buckingham Palace, with its forty acres of gardens, stands. The
keeping of these gardens was, with the occupancy of the house, granted
by Charles I. to Lord Aston, in 1629, but a year or two later, certainly
before 1632, Lord Goring purchased the property for ;^8oo, and there-
upon called the residence Goring House.^ It is not exactly clear when
the cultivation of silkworms and the trees that fed them was given up
as a hopeless endeavour, but in any case it is obvious that Goring House
and a certain portion of the grounds were divided from the remainder
of the property which continued to be called The Mulberry Gardens,
and was for many years a place of public amusement, much affected
by the fashion of the day and continually receiving mention in the plays
and diaries of the period ; Pepys and Evelyn referring to it on various
occasions, and Etherege and Sedley and Wycherley all introducing it
into their dramatic works ; one of the plays of Sedley having for its title
that of The Mulberry Garden.
When this division took place other portions of the ground were
also separated, and by Faithorne and Newcourt's plan of 1658, we can see
that there were three residences here at that time ; the smallest, with
which we are not concerned, standing at about the south-east corner of
Constitution Hill ; the second. Goring House, where the palace is now
situated ; and the third, and largest, known as Tart Hall, immediately
on its south side.
Before proceeding to say anything of Goring House, I must give
a few facts about Tart Hall. This fine house was built, in 1638, for the
Countess of Arundel, wife of the marble-collecting Earl of pious memory,
by Nicholas Stone, the elder.^ From Lady Arundel, the place passed
to her second son. Lord Stafford, who was beheaded, in 1680, on the
lying evidence of Titus Oates. It later became a place of entertainment,
probably in conjunction with the Mulberry Gardens, and was demolished
in 1720, after its contents, including many of the famous Arundel marbles,
and some of the pictures collected by the Earl, among which was the
famous " Diana and Actaeon " by Titian now belonging to Lord EUesmere,
had been sold by auction.
' There is a plan of the Goring estate, showing Goring House facing south, and dated 1675,
in the Grace collection.
' Walpole mentions his receiving at various times ;£6oo odd to pay his workmen in this
matter.
76 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Return we to Goring House which during the Commonwealth was
tenanted for a time by Speaker Lenthall. After the Restoration, Lord
Goring returned and took up his residence here, having expended some
_^20,ooo on the place, and on July lo, 1660, Pepys, who had that day
put on for the first time a silk suit, went with his wife to the wedding of
Nan Hartlib and Mynheer Roder " which was kept at Goring House,
with very great state, cost, and noble company," according to the diarist.
Lord Goring, however, only enjoyed his second term of ownership for
two years, when, on his death, his son sold the mansion to Henry
Bennet, created Earl of Arlington, in 1665, and known to fame as
one of Charles H.'s secretaries of state, and the " A " of the notorious
Cabal. At this time, it was but an " ill built " house, according to
Evelyn, who however saw in it the possibilities of a " pretty villa."
Lord Arlington seems to have done much to make it a fine place ;
for if he did not actually rebuild it he so greatly enlarged it, that it might
properly, even then, have been considered as palatial. Its name was
at the same time changed from Goring to Arlington House. ^ Soon after
the death of the second Lord Goring, which occurred on March 3,
1670, Charles granted, in 1673, the grounds to Lord Arlington ; these
grounds being the Mulberry Gardens, as separate from the house and
gardens directly attached to them.
But, in the following year, the mansion was totally destroyed by
fire, the whole of its contents being consumed. Whether this disaster
was the immediate cause, or whether it was due to the demise of the
whole property to Lord Arlington, it is certain that the Mulberry Gardens
were closed about this time, and henceforth may be regarded as private
property. Evelyn refers to the destruction of the house, in an entry in
his Diary, for September 21, 1674, ^^^^ • " ^ went to see the great loss
that Lord Arlington had sustained by fire at Goring House, this night
consumed to the ground, with exceeding loss of hangings, plate, rare
pictures, and cabinets ; hardly anything was saved of the best and
most princely furniture that any subject had in England. My Lord and
Lady were both absent at Bath."
Soon after the disaster Lord Arlington set about rebuilding the house,
and a poem in Latin written by Dryden's son, Charles, perpetuates its
beauty and advantages. On Arlington's death, in 1685, the house passed
to his only child Isabella, who had been married when little more than
an infant, to the Duke of Grafton, a son of Charles II. and Lady Castle-
' The following entn' occurs in Evelyn's diary, under date of April 17, 1673: "She (the
Countess of Arlington) carried us up into her new dressing-roome at Goring House, where was
a bed, two glasses, silver jars and vases, cabinets and other rich furniture as I had seldom
seene."
BUCKINGHAM HOUSE 77
maine. The Duchess of Grafton let it, in 1698, to the first Duke of
Devonshire, and later, in 1702, sold the property, for _^i 3,000, to John
Sheffield, created in the following year, Duke of Buckinghamshire, the
" Sharp-judging Adriel, the muse's friend,
Himself a muse in Sanhedrin's debate "
of Dryden's Absalom and Achitofhel.
Although Arlington House must have been a fine one,^ it was not
fine enough to satisfy the taste of its new owner, and in the year in
which he was raised to the dukedom, he commissioned Colin Campbell
to design a new palace ; at least so some authorities say ; others affirming
that the architect was that Captain Wynne, or Winde, who was
responsible for Newcastle House in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and Coombe
Abbey. Walpole, in referring to Campbell and Winde, makes no mention
of either having had a hand in Buckingham House, but Walpole was
so frequently inadequate that perhaps this goes for little. On the whole,
the evidence is in favour of Winde, and I am glad it is so, for it enables
me to introduce the following anecdote.
When the mansion was nearly completed, Winde had a good deal
of difficulty in obtaining payment of arrears owed by the Duke ; indeed
it seemed as if a settlement was to be postponed shie die. At this
juncture, the wily architect one day induced the Duke to mount with
him to the roof of the house, in order to see the splendid view.
His Grace, unsuspecting, became immersed in the beauty of the prospect,
when Winde took the opportunity of locking the trap-door by which
they had reached the leads, and then threw the key over the parapet.
" I am a ruined man," he exclaimed to the astonished Duke, " and unless
I receive your word of honour that the debts incurred by this building
shall be paid directly, I will instantly throw myself over." " And what
is to become of me t " said the Duke. " Why, you shall accompany me,"
was the staggering reply. Needs must when such a devil of an architect
drives, and the promise was immediately given ; when the trap-door
was opened, on a preconcerted signal, by one of Winde's workmen.''
There seems to have been a consensus of praise bestowed on the beauty
of the red-brick building which arose on the site of Arlington House, one
poet calling it " a princely palace," another, no less a one than Pope,
affirming that it had all the excellent attributes of a " country house
in the summer, and a town house in the winter ; " even the hypercritical
' There is extant a very rare etching of the mansion, showing a large cupola that dominated
the roof, reproduced in Larwood's Story of tlie London Parks.
^ The Fine Arts in Gi-cat Britain, by W. B. -S. Taylor.
78 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Ralph is found approving, and stating that it " attracts more eyes, and
has more admirers than almost any other house about town," which
is certainly more than can be said of Nash's enormous pile which has
taken its place ; while M. de Saussure, who visited this country in 1725,
specifically mentions it as one of the three finest mansions in London
at that day. Macky, in his Journey through England^ published in 17 14, gives
an elaborate description of the house, which he calls " one of the great
beauties of London, both by reason of its situation and its building ; "
what its exterior looked like may be seen from extant views, but Macky's
account is interesting and valuable as affording us a glimpse of the interior.
" It is situated," he writes, " at the west end of St. James's Park,
fronting the Mall and the great walk ; and behind it is a fine garden,
a whole terrace (from whence as well as from the apartments, you have
a most delicious prospect), and a little park with a pretty canal. The
courtyard which fronts the Park is spacious ; the offices are on each side
divided from the Palace by two arching galleries, and in the middle of
the court is a round basin of water, lined with freestone, with the figures
of Neptune and the Tritons in a water-work. The staircase is large
and nobly painted ; and in the Hall before you ascend the stairs is a very
fine statue of Cain slaying Abel in marble. The apartments are indeed
very noble, the furniture rich, and many very good pictures. The top
of the Palace is flat, on which one hath a full view of London and West-
minster, and the adjacent country ; and the four figures of Mercury,
Secrecy, Equity, and Liberty, front the Park, and those of the Four
Seasons the gardens," and he adds that " His Grace hath also put inscriptions
on the four parts of his Palace. On the front towards the Park . . . the
inscription is SzV siti Icetantur Lares ; and fronting the garden, Rus in urheJ^
Both of which mottoes may be said to have been singularly apposite, which
is not always the case when inscriptions from the dead languages are
pressed into the service of modern builders.
To this description we are luckily able to add something from the
detailed account of the place addressed by its owner to the Duke of
Shrewsbury, which is to be found at length, together with three vignettes
of the mansion, in the Duke of Buckinghamshire's works, published in 1729.
From this we find that the pictures hanging in the Hall which Macky
mentions were " done in the school of Raphael " ; that the parlour, reached
from the Hall, was 33 feet by 39 feet, " with a niche 15 feet broad for
a Bufette, paved with white marble, and placed within an arch, with
Pilasters of divers colours, the upper part of which as high as the ceiling
is painted by Ricci."
From another source we find that the ceiling of the saloon was executed
BUCKINGHAM HOUSE 79
by Horatio Gentileschi, having been originally painted for Villiers, first
Duke of Buckingham ; it represented the nine Muses in a circle, sur-
rounding Apollo, and was no less than eighteen feet in diameter. Walpole
also mentions Bellucci, an Italian painter who came to this country,
in 1716, as having painted a ceiling here in 1722, for which the Duchess
paid him ^^500 ; and we know that Charles II. was first attracted to
the work of Verrio by seeing some of his paintings in this mansion.
I need not recapitulate the whole of the Duke's lengthy description
of his palace, but it is pleasant to read that " just under the windows "
(of the book-room), " is a little wilderness full of blackbirds and nightin-
gales," and that the trees grew so well and quickly that even those planted
by the owner himself soon required lopping " to prevent their hindering
the view of that fine canal in the Park " ; and again that " a wall covered
with roses and jassemine," was built low " to admit the view of a meadow
full of cattle just under it." Rus in urhe indeed ! ^
But even with all this there was the inevitable fly in the ointment,
and we find the Duke " oftener missing a pretty gallery in the old house
I pulled down than pleased with the salon which I built in its stead,
tho' a thousand times better in all manner of respects." May we not
ask with Horace —
"Qui fit, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem
Seu ratio dederit, seu fors objicerit, ilia
Contentus vivat " ?
On the death of the Duke, on February 24, 172 1, Buckingham
House was left to his third wife, daughter of James II. by Catherine
Sedley ; and two years later we find the Prince and Princess of Wales
(afterwards George II. and Queen Caroline) in treaty for it ; which,
remembering its later history, is interesting.
But the Duchess wanted three thousand a year ^ as rent, and would
take not less than ^60,000 for it " as it stands, with furniture, pictures,
gardens, meadows, and little tenements which pay one hundred and
twenty pounds per annum," and she says rightly enough : " All his
Majesty's revenue cannot purchase a place so well situated for a less
sum ; and indeed," she adds, " it is hardly worth for that, giving my
son, when he grows up, the mortification to find such a house gone from
him ... a million cannot find him such a valuable one."
' As Mr. Blomfield points out, Buckingham House was one of the earliest examples of a
mansion built on the plan of a large rectangular central block connected by colonnades with
detached offices " treated as pavilions in advance of the main buildings, and forming three
sides of the fore court."
^ Her long letter on the matter, to Lady Suffolk, Queen Caroline's "good Howard," is in
the Suffolk Papers, vol. i. pp. 113-117.
8o THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
We thus see that the Duchess was by no means a wilHng seller, and
the matter, probably on account of lack of sufficient funds in the Prince's
exchequer, fell through, so that her Grace was still able, as Walpole tells
us was her custom, on the anniversary of the execution of Charles I.
to receive Lord Hervey " in the Great Drawing Room of Buckingham
House, seated in a chair of state, in deep mourning, attended by her
women in like weeds, in memory of the royal martyr."
It was to Lord Hervey, the " Sporus " and " Lord Fanny " of Pope's
bitter invective, that she left the property. He, however, never resided
in it, and died in 1743, when it appears to have come into the possession
of Sir Charles Sheffield, the natural son of the Duke of Buckinghamshire ;
the second and last Duke of this line having died in 1735. From Sir
Charles the property was purchased by George HL, in 1762, as a
residence for Queen Charlotte, on whom it was afterwards settled by
an Act of Parliament passed in 1775, the price paid being ^28,000;
another instance of the extraordinary fall in the value of real property
under the Georges. With its conversion into a royal palace, we have
no more to do with it ; but it is interesting to know that in the library
here Dr. Johnson had his famous interview with the King, when the
Great Cham of literature found the manners of his sovereign " those of
as fine a gentleman as we may suppose Lewis the Fourteenth or Charles
the Second." '
MONTAGU HOUSE, BLOOMSBURY
What the late Lord Salisbury was accustomed to say about the
advantages of large maps in placing us aii courant with international
questions and the mysteries of boundary lines, holds good when we are
studying the former outlines of our great city, and are attempting
to rehabilitate some of its past glories. An investigation, indeed, of
an authentic plan on a large scale, will, it is possible, teach us more
than the most strenuous attempts of topographers to verbally reconstruct
a locality or localise the position of some now almost forgotten landmark.
This is particularly the case with the great house about which I want
to say something now. If we look at that part of Morden and Lea's
plan of London of 1732, which deals with the parish of St. Giles and
its vicinity, we shall see the outlines of Montagu House and its garden
very clearly marked, and we shall gain a good idea of the importance
' The present palace was built, partly by additions to the original house, in 1825, under
Nash ; partly by various additions made by Blore at the time of the accession of Queen
Victoria.
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MONTAGU HOUSE 8i
of the former and the extent of the latter. We shall see that having
a long frontage to Great Russell Street, it was bounded on its north
and west sides hy open fields, a portion of which fields are traditionally
interesting ; and that on its eastern boundary stood Southampton House
and its ample gardens, only less noble in size than Montagu House itself,
and about which I shall have some remarks to make later on. Of the
principal front and great courtyard of Montagu House we can also gain an
excellent idea from the print published in 1714, which is here reproduced;
and of its history and interior decorations, as well as of its precursor which
was destroyed by fire, every writer on London has had something to say.
The first Montagu House appears to have been erected about 1675,
by Ralph Montagu, who succeeded his father as third Baron Montagu
of Boughton in 1683, and who died in 1709, having been created an earl
in 1689, and a duke in 1705. Evelyn, who always took an early oppor-
tunity of inspecting any new building, went to see the place on May 11,
1676. " I dined with Mr. Charleton," he writes, " and went to see
Mr. Montague's new palace neere Bloomsbury, built by Mr. Hooke of
our Society {i.e. the Royal Society), after the French manner."
Robert Hooke, although he is not included by Walpole among the
architects of the day, was a well-known man, for other reasons. He was
a famous mathematician, and besides was the inventor of spring clocks
and pocket watches, and held the important post of Curator to the
Royal Society, as well as that of Professor of Geometry at Gresham College.
The fact that he is ignored by Walpole is the more singular seeing that
he was largely employed in the reconstruction of that part of the town
destroyed in the Great Fire. Pepys speaks of him as one " who is the
most, and promises the least, of any man in the world that ever I saw,"
and refers to his book on Microscopy as " a most excellent piece," and
he seems on one occasion to have interested worthy Samuel in such an
unexhilarating process as that of felt-making ; and at another time to
have rather mystified him by a discourse on musical sounds, which though
above the head of the Diarist, he, nevertheless, found to be " mighty
fine " ; indeed, Pepys, as a member of the Royal Society, was thrown
much in Hooke's company, and whenever he mentions him, it is generally
to record some piece of information imparted either in conversation
or at one of the lectures at Gresham College, and always to Pepys's
" great content." Hooke, indeed, seems to have been an all-round man
to whose mind nothing came amiss, and once Evelyn, calling at The
Burdens at Epsom, found him, with Sir William Petty and Dr. Wilkins,
" contriving chariots, new rigging for ships, a wheele for one to run
races in, and other mechanical inventions," and he adds : " Perhaps three
82 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
such persons together were not to be found elsewhere in Europe for
parts and ingenuity." *
I have loitered somewhat over Dr. Hooke, because the architect of
such an admittedly fine mansion as Montagu House seemed to require
a few words, particularly as he was, in other respects, so accomplished a
man.
The nobleman for whom he designed the house was not less notable
in a different sphere — that of politics and diplomacy. He had been
Master of the Horse to Katherine of Braganza ; in 1666, he was sent as
Ambassador Extraordinary to Paris, and three years later was resident
Ambassador in that capital ; in 1672, he was made a Privy Councillor,
and four years later was again entrusted with a special mission to France,
as he was again in the following year. For about five years he represented
Northampton and Huntingdon in Parliament ; and on the top of other
honours, was created Marquis of Monthermer, and Duke of Montagu
in 1705, four years before his death. He married twice ; first, Elizabeth,
Dowager-Countess of Northumberland, and secondly, Elizabeth, Dowager-
Duchess of Albemarle — " the mad Duchess," as she was called.
Montagu House was evidently completed and furnished by the end
of 1679, for we find Evelyn paying another visit there, on November 5th
of that year, and noting the beauty of its contents, but complaining that
the garden, though fine, was " too much expos'd," which, however,
considering that it was open to the fields, its owner probably thought a
distinct advantage. Four years later the Diarist paid yet another visit
to the place, in company with the newly-married Duchess of Grafton
and her father the Earl of Arlington, then Lord Chamberlain. Evelyn
speaks of the mansion as " a stately and ample palace," and mentions
particularly " Signr. Verrio's fresco paintings, especially the funeral pile
of Dido, on the stayrecase, the labours of Hercules, fight with the Centaurs,
effeminacy with Dejanira, and Apotheosis or reception among the
gods, on ye walls, and roofe of the greate roome above," which he says
" exceeds anything he has yet done, both for designe, colouring, and
exuberance of invention, comparable to ye greatest of the old masters,
or what they celebrate in Rome," which, when we remember Pope's
" sprawling saints of Verrio," shows how differently ages judge artistic
merit. Unfortunately Evelyn does not particularise the other pictorial
decorations in the house, except to remark generally that " in the rest
of the chambers are some excellent paintings of Holbein and other
masters." Of the exterior he says : " The garden is large, and in good
aire, but the front of the house not answerable to the inside. The court
' Narcissus Luttrell records the death of Hooke, which took place on March 3, 1703.
MONTAGU HOUSE 83
is entrie, and wings for offices, seeme too neare the streete, and that so
very narrow and meanly built that the corridore is not in proportion to
ye rest, to hide the court from being overlooked by neighbours, all which
might have been prevented had they placed the house further into ye
ground,^ of which there is enough to spare." " But," he concludes,
" it is a fine palace."
It is impossible to say what Mr. Montagu expended in decoration
and building, apart from the furniture, pictures, &c., on Montagu House ;
but on the back of a list of charges made by Verrio for work done at
Windsor, is written : " More from Mr. Montagu of London . . . ;^8oo " ;
which obviously refers to frescoes executed at Montagu House.
The house seems for a time to have been let to the fourth Earl of
Devonshire, who had only recently succeeded to the title (November 25,
1684), and was afterwards created a duke, in 1694 ; and he appears
to have been paying 500 guineas a year for it, when in the early hours
of Wednesday morning, January 19, 1686, the disastrous fire occurred
here which practically destroyed everything. A contemporary letter *
thus records the cause of the unfortunate event : " On Wednesday,
at one in the morning, a sad fire happened at Montagu House in Blooms-
bury, occasioned by the steward's airing some hangings, &c., in expecta-
tion of my Lord Montagu's return home, and sending afterwards a woman
to see that the fire-pans with charcoal were removed, which she told
him she had done, though she never came there. The loss that my
Lord Montagu has sustained by this accident is estimated at ^40,000,
besides ;^6ooo in plate ; and my Lord Devonshire's loss in pictures,
hangings, and other furniture, is very considerable." Evelyn recording
the fire says that " for painting and furniture there was nothing more
glorious in England," than what was contained in Lord Montagu's palace.
Its owner appears to have lost no time in rebuilding the house,
the architect on this occasion being Peter Paul Puget,' or Monsieur
Pouget, as Walpole terms him, who appears to have been sent for from
his native France, to prepare designs for a new mansion. Walpole,
who allots just five lines to this architect whose Christian name he
evidently did not know, speaks of him as conducting the building of
Montagu House in 1678, perhaps merely a clerical error by the inversion
of the last two figures. The new design after the French style, apparently
followed out the lines of the earlier house, the new palace being built
• He means, of course, farther back from the main street.
^ Ellis Correspondence, 2nd series, vol. iv. p. 89. See also an interesting reference to this
event in The Autobiography of Sir John Bramston.
' He is sometimes called Pierre Puget or Poughet.
84 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
on the original foundations, so that its extent was probably identical
with that of its predecessor.
Even Lord Montagu's large resources must have been strained, when
we consider the great loss he had sustained and the vast expense of the
new house ; especially when we remember, too, that a number of French
artists were employed to do what Verrio had done before. Of these
the principal were Jacques Rousseau, Charles de la Fosse, and Jean Baptiste
Monnoyer,' who were all employed on the work of beautifying the place.
Rousseau received ;^i50o for what he did, besides which Lord Montagu
allowed him an annuity of ;^200 which he enjoyed but two years ; and
as he died in Soho Square, in 1694, ^^ shows that he was continued on
at Montagu House long after it was completed. Among La Fosse's
work here were two ceilings, one representing the " Apotheosis of Isis,"
the other an " Assembly of the Gods." *
Although Lord Montagu did not fill the high place occupied by a
Prime Minister which seems invariably to attract the fierce light which
blackens every blot, yet his connection with the Court of France in his
ambassadorial capacity, and his exclusive patronage of French artists,
laid him open to the charge that his new house was built with money
received from the French king ! — one of those popular fallacies of which
the eighteenth century contributed several examples ; indeed the writer
of Ackermann's Microcosm of London seriously repeats this, and further
states that Louis sent over the French artists to decorate the new house,
as Lord Montagu's spirits had become so greatly depressed by the loss
of the earlier mansion, he being at the time of the fire Ambassador
in Paris. Taylor, on the other hand, gives this version of the matter :
" When the Duke of Montagu was Ambassador at Paris, he changed
Hotels with the French Ambassador, who was sent to England, and
during his residence the first Montagu House was destroyed by fire.
It was agreed between them that the Court of France should supply
half the expenses of rebuilding, upon the condition that a French architect
and painter should be employed. The object avowed was to teach the
English how a perfect palace should be constructed and embellished."
Which tale is very neatly constructed ; but what becomes of the Duke
of Devonshire, who is known to have been renting the place ? L^nless
indeed, the low rent he paid, ^500 per annum, was fixed on the under-
standing that the French Ambassador should occupy a portion of the
great house.
Ralph, in his Critical Review, of course has some fault to find with
' There are a number of his pictures still in Montagu House, Whitehall, as we shall see.
' Walpole's Anecdotes.
MONTAGU HOUSE 85
the new building, but as, apparently, he was rather baffled over the main
portion, he falls foul of the brick wall which hid the mansion from public
view so that it could only be seen from within the vast courtyard ;
Evelyn, we remember, found fault with the former mansion because it
was overlooked ! On the whole, however, the praise outweighs the
depreciation, and M. Grosley, the French traveller who came to these
shores many years later, writes that " Vhotel Montaigu merite une dis-
tinction farticuliere. Par son etendue, far ses distributions, far la mag-
nificence de ses ornemens, par V agrhnent de sa position, il a. plus Vair d'une
maison royale que de Vhotel d'un particulier." ^
There were twelve principal rooms on the ground floor, and the same
number on the first floor, and all these were of vast size and height, and
admirably lighted, fully bearing out what Walpole says of " the spacious
lofty magnificence of the apartments " ; half of them overlooking the
courtyard, and as many enjoying the prospect over the gardens, and the
open fields beyond.
The curious may see a ground plan of the house which is contained
in Dodsley's Environs of London, published in 1761 ; while Pugin and
Britton, in their Public Edifices of London, 1823, also give one. The
noble staircase, with its mural paintings, is admirably represented in
Ackermann's Microcosm of London, and gives a better idea of how the
interior of one of these old private palaces looked than any other drawing
with which I am familiar.
The Duke of Montagu died in 1709, and was succeeded by his son
Sir John Montagu as second Duke ; but he also left behind him his
eccentric second wife, who had married him as Emperor of China, she
being quite mad at the time ; why his Grace married her at all is one
of those mysteries at which imagination boggles. The Duchess was
kept in her apartment on the ground floor at Montagu House, during
the life of her husband, and was then, and afterwards till her death,
served on the knee presumably as Empress of the Celestial Empire ; ^
but on his Grace's death there seems to have been some question as to
who was to have the care of her. The second Duke was her stepson,
and therefore I suppose did not consider himself responsible for her safe
keeping ; and by a letter of Peter Wentworth to his brother, dated
March 15, 1709, it would seem that his wife was as firm.' In any
case there was much difficulty in persuading the old lady to give up the
' Londrfs, vol. i. p. 59.
' She died at Newcastle House, Clerkenwell, in 1734, where we have met with her.
^ See the W'cntworth Papers, where there is a letter in French, of the same date, with
further details of this curious case.
86 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
house to its new and rightful owners, and her sisters the Duchess of
Newcastle and Lady Thanet we read " aUerent rendre visits a la Duchesse
Douairiere de Montaigne, leur soer, et tacherent inutilement de lui persuader
de sortir de la maison de ce Due, ou elle a He rerifermee de-puts tant d'annies."
However, she was at length taken to Newcastle House, and Montagu
House and its Empress were parted. Colley Gibber wrote a scene, in
his Sick Lady Cured, inspired by the imperial pretensions of the mad
Duchess.
In those days of footpads and highwaymen even a duke could hardly
traverse the town from the neighbourhood of Westminster to that of
St. Giles with impunity, and it was probably this that caused, about 1732,
the second Duke to commence building a new house in Whitehall where
he eventually took up his permanent abode, whereupon old Montagu
House remained for some years empty and neglected, and at last coming
into the hands of Lord Halifax, that nobleman sold it to the Government,
in 1754, for _^io,250, for the purpose of a national repository for the various
fine collections which Sir Hans Sloane had bequeathed to the country and
which formed the nucleus of the British Museum ^ as we know it to-day.
At the time of its acquisition by Parliament, the old house had become
very dilapidated ; indeed in so ruinous a condition was it found to be,
that much more was spent on its repair than on its purchase, nearly
^30,000 being found requisite to put it in a satisfactory state.
The materials were disposed of by auction, and such portions of the
painted walls and ceilings as could be removed were sold for ridiculous
sums — one of La Fosse's deities for half-a-crown, and a bunch of Monnoyer's
flowers for eighteenpence."
It is outside my scheme to follow the destinies of Montagu House
after it ceased to be a private palace, but I may mention that various
additions were made to the original structure to fit it for its new uses,
and to cope with the rapidly increasing number and importance of its
contents, till, in 1820, the present structure was commenced, behind
the old house, and the valuable contents were removed gradually into
the new building ; similarly, says Timbs, " the principal front took the
place of the old Montagu House fa9ade, which was removed piecemeal ;
and strange it was to see the lofty pitched roof, balustraded attic, and
large-windowed front of ' the French manner,' giving way to the Grecian
architecture of Sir Robert Smirke's new design."
An excellent view of the back of old Montagu House is given in a
' The present buildings were completed in 1847 ; two years previously the last remains of
the old Montagu House had disappeared.
- Timbs, Romance 0/ London.
MONTAGU HOUSE 87
print entitled " Encampment of troops in the gardens of the British
Museum at the time of the Gordon Riots, 1780." Into these gardens,
on this occasion, Lord and Lady Mansfield escaped by a back gate when
the mob attacked and ransacked their house in Bloomsbury Square.'
The fields behind the gardens require a word, for they were, from
towards the end of the seventeenth century till the middle of the
eighteenth, the favourite place for duels ; the plays, novels, and the pages
of the daily press containing many references to encounters " behind
Montagu House." ^ One of the most notable of these was that which
took place in 1692, between Charles KnoUys, who claimed to be fourth
Earl of Banbury, and his brother-in-law. Captain Lawson of the Guards,
in which the latter was killed, and the former arraigned for murder.
He was tried before Lord Justice Hall and two other judges, and when
accused of the crime as Charles KnoUys, he replied that he was not
Charles KnoUys but Earl of Banbury, a plea which was allowed by the
judges, and through which technicality he escaped the extreme penalty of
the law. The House of Lords had, however, on the vexed question of
this peerage decided that KnoUys was not Earl of Banbury, and so furious
were the peers with the judges for tacitly acknowledging his right to
the title, that they summoned them to the bar of the House, but were
unable to make them alter their decision. The whole matter of the
celebrated Banbury peerage case cannot of course be entered into here,
but I would remind the reader that the question has never yet been
settled, and that the title bestowed some years since on Sir Francis KnoUys
is an entirely new creation, and in no sense a re-creation of the original
peerage which Captain Edmund KnoUys, the head of the family, still
claims.'
A portion of the open ground behind Montagu House was known
as " The Field of Forty Footsteps," or " The Brothers' Steps," on account
of a desperate encounter between two brothers, rivals for the affections of
a young lady who is said to have watched the fray. As they struggled
together they are reported to have left these marks on the ground, on which
subsequently the grass was believed never to grow. J. T. Smith records
the incident in his Book for a Rainy Day, and the legend has been dealt
with by several writers; and has supplied the motif for at least one novel.
Torrington Square occupies the site of this portion of the fields, over
which the windows of Montagu House looked. One other circumstance
' See the author's History of the Squares of London.
' Readers of Roderick Random will remember that Rourke Oregan waited there, "with a
pair of good pistols" while Strap conducted the guard to the same locality.
" The details of Lord Banbury's trial, which seems to have extended over five years, will
be found in the Diary of Narcissus XmIxx^W, passim.
88 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
connected with these meadows deserves notice, which I will give in the
ipsissima verba of Aubrey, the antiquary, who narrates it : " The last
summer, on the day of St. John the Baptist (1694), I accidentally was
walking in the pasture behind Montagu House ; it was twelve o'clock. I
saw there about two or three and twenty young women, most of them
well habited, on their knees very busie, as if they had been weeding. I
could not presently hear what the matter was ; at last a young man
told me they were looking for a coal under the root of a plantain to put
under their heads that night, and they should dream who would be their
husbands. It was to be found that day and hour." ^
SOUTHAMPTON or BEDFORD HOUSE
Adjoining the grounds of Montagu House on the east once stood
Southampton or, as it was afterwards called, Bedford House. Morden
and Lea's plan to which I have before referred, shows that its grounds
covered almost as large an area as those of Montagu House, and if the
mansion was not so large as its neighbour, it had this advantage, that
it was set farther back from the road, as Evelyn said Montagu House
should have been. As, also, in the case of Montagu House, two mansions
successively stood here, where Bedford Place now runs, the former of
which was the original manor-house of Bloomsbury, the seat of the
Blemunds who gave their name to this district, which in those far-off
times must have been as countrified as Harrow and a good deal more rural
than Hampstead.
In Agas's plan of London, dated 1591, and in the earlier plan of 1560,
old Southampton House is shown standing by itself among the fields.
I have said something of this earlier structure in the first chapter, and
from a careful comparison of old plans, &c., I have come to the conclusion
that the original house stood to the south of the later mansion, probably
about the south side of the present Bloomsbury Square where Southampton
Street runs.''
As we have seen,' there had once been a design to pull down the old
house and to erect tenements on Its site, which, however, came to nothing ;
and it was not till the reign of Charles II. that the latter palace was
erected. In what year this actually took place is a little doubtful, but
in any case, those who attribute the work to Inigo Jones are incorrect,
' Miscellanies. Brand in his Popular Antiquities records, much later, a somewhat similar
superstition.
- The first Earl of Southampton obtained possession of the manor in the reign of
Henry VIII.
^ Chap. i. p. 20.
SOUTHAMPTON HOUSE 89
for that great architect died in 1652, and certainly Southampton House
was not erected till some years after that date. As, however, the eleva-
tions show some signs of his influence, it is probable that his pupil, and
son-in-law, John Webb, was responsible for it.
Few of the exteriors of the former great houses of London are better
known than that of Southampton House, for there are a number of views
of it extant, that which is here reproduced being one of the best. By it
one can see how imposing and even splendid was the building, and how
extended its front, but what can also be seen is that Evelyn's criticism that its
elevation was too low is a cogent one, and there is no doubt but that
another attic storey would have vastly improved its appearance.
When the Diarist dined with Lord Southampton here, the latter
was busy forming that " noble square or Piazza, a little towne," which
Evelyn mentions and which we now know as Bloomsbury Square ; and
by the development of which the amenities of Southampton House
were greatly enhanced. Contemporary criticism on the mansion is nearly
always favourable, and foreigners particularly were struck with the solid
grandeur of the pile, De Saussure considering it one of the finest private
houses in London, and Grosley placing it second among the four which
he thought alone comparable to the great hotels of Paris.
As in the case of so many of these old London houses, the gardens
attached to Southampton House were no less a feature than the mansion
itself, and some idea of their extent may be gained when we remember
that in breadth they were double the frontage of the house which itself
occupied the whole of the north side of Bloomsbury Square, and that
they reached north nearly to the centre of what is now Russell Square.
Dobie, the historian of Bloomsbury, writing in 1834, speaks of dis-
tinctly recollecting " the venerable grandeur " of the mansion " shaded
with a thick foliage of magnificent lime trees " ; and he records that " the
fine verdant lawn extended a considerable distance between these, and
was guarded by a deep ravine to the north, from the intrusive steps of
the daring, whilst in perfect safety were grazing various breeds of foreign
and other sheep, which from their singular appearance excited the gaze
and admiration of the curious." There were, too, a number of trees in the
front of the house, among which the graceful acacia * was once to be seen,
as well as the limes already mentioned, which must have been those that
Sorbiere in his Voyage en Angleterre speaks of, when he says " on voit
les arbres du Palais de Bethfordt -par dessus la muraille.^' This wall was
also a feature of the building, and Letitia Hawkins, in her Memoirs, men-
tions " The wall before Bedford House, a wall of singular beauty and
' Walpole's Essay on Gardening.
90 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
elegance which extended on the north side of Bloomsbury Square from
east to west, and the gates of which were decorated with those lovely
monsters, sphinxes, very finely carved " ; while she also speaks of the
house as being " a long, low white edifice, kept, in the old Duke's time,^
in the nicest state of good order, and admirably in unison with the snow-
white livery of the family. It had noble apartments and a spacious
garden, which opened to the fields ; and the uninterrupted freedom
of air, between this situation and the distant hills, gave it the advantages
of an excellent town house and a suburban viUa."
Evelyn, in 1665, had noted the excellence of the air ; but at that
time the ground had not been properly matured, and he had to confess
that the garden was " naked."
The fields referred to by Miss Hawkins as bounding the property
on the north, shared, in the seventeenth, and for a considerable period
of the eighteenth, century, the bad reputation of those contingent ones
behind Montagu House, as a place for duels. Mountfort, the actor,
a victim in one such encounter, mentions the fact in the epilogue to
his Greenwich Park, and the pages of Luttrell and other contemporary
writers will be found to contain frequent references to this spot as a chosen
place for men of quality to settle their, sometimes extraordinarily trivial,
differences ; the isolated position of the ground and the very primitive
methods of policing the capital then in vogue, insuring a maximum of
privacy, and a minimum of risk of apprehension to the victor.
Southampton House passed to the Russell family in this wise. Its
builder, the fourth Earl of Southampton, one of the most loyal adherents
of Charles I., who, luckier than many, neither lost his life nor the whole
of his fortune in the service of his master, died in the mansion, on May 16,
1667 ; but although he had been married three times, he left no male
heir to succeed him, and the property passed to his daughter. Lady
Rachel Wriothesley, who had married, in 1669, William, Lord Russell,^
son of the first Duke of Bedford, and thus became the Lady Rachel
Russell, so well known for her charm, abilities, and sad fortunes.^
William, Lord Russell and Lady Rachel resided at Bedford House,
' The fifth Duke of Bedford, born 1760, died 1802.
' She had been previously married to Lord Vaughan, eldest son of the Earl of Carberry.
^ William, Lord Russell, is often spoken of as Lord William Russell, and as he was the
younger son of the Duke, this is not incorrect ; but his elder brother predeceasing him, he was
known by the courtesy title of Lord Russell, the second title of Marquis of Titchfield not being
used until borne by Lord Russell's son when he became heir to the dukedom. Similarly Lady
Rachel Russell is the correct designation of this lady, as she was the daughter of an earl, and
married one who only bore a courtesy title. Of such are the titular intricacies that trouble
foreigners.
BEDFORD HOUSE 91
as it now began to be called,^ and he was here at the time the charges
for high treason were brought against him, when a message from the
Council ordered a guard to be set at the gate to stop him if he attempted
to leave his residence ; the baclc entrance, however, was not watched, so
that had he chosen he might have escaped that way, but such a course
would have been in his opinion and that of his friends too much like a
confession of guilt, and he remained until he was taken to the Tower.
All the world knows the story of that famous trial. Few things are
so pathetic as the spectacle of the innocent gentleman defended by his
noble wife with all the acumen of a professional advocate and the ardour
of a deep affection ; two lambs trying to save an already judged cause,
against the brutal Jeffreys, whose character refuses to be whitewashed,
the offensive Saunders, Pemberton the whilom rake and debauche,
and Scroggs, the butcher's son. What could avail before such a tribunal !
how could truth hope to conquer against men whose instincts and pre-
judices made them only too ready to accept the evidence of perjured
wretches like Rumsey and Howard of Escrick !
When the result of the trial was known, James Duke of York, if it can
be believed, proposed that, as an additional ignominy, Lord Russell should
be beheaded before the very windows of Bedford House ; but to his credit,
Charles, who with all his faults cannot be compared with his brother for
spite and cowardice, would not consent to such a refinement of cruelty,
and the last sad scene took place in Lincoln's Inn Fields. On the way
there, the cortege passed Bedford House, and Burnet tells how, as the
victim looked for a moment at his once happy home, his fortitude almost
deserted him ; but suppressing his emotion he exclaimed, " The bitterness
of death is now passed," and Tillotson, who accompanied him, saw some
tears fall from his eyes.
This judicial murder took place in 1683, and after it Lady Rachel
continued to reside in what she pathetically terms " that desolate
habitation of mine ... a place of terror to me," till her death there,
in 1723.
In the meantime her son had succeeded to the Dukedom of Bedford
in 1700, and resided here with her. He was but six years old when the
great fire at Montagu House took place, and is referred to in Lady
Rachel's account of the disaster which she wrote to Dr. Fitzwilliam, a
few days after the event, in these words : " If you have heard of the
dismal accident in this neighbourhood you will easily believe that
Tuesday night was not a quiet one with us. About one o'clock in the
' One of Lady Rachel's letters is dated Russell House, showing that for a time at least it
was so termed.
92 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
night I heard a great noise in the Square, so little ordinary, I called
up a servant, and sent her down to hear the occasion ; she brought up
a very sad one, that Montagu House was on fire ; and it was so indeed ;
it burnt with so great violence, the house was consumed by five o'clock.
The wind blew strong this way, so that we lay under fire a great part
of the time, the sparks and flames covering the house and filling the
court. My boy awoke and said he was almost suffocated with smoke,
but being told the reason, would see it, and so was satisfied without fear ;
and took a strange bedfellow very willingly, Lady Devonshire's youngest
boy, whom his nurse had brought wrapt in a blanket. Thus we see
what a day brings forth, and how momentary the things are we set our
hearts upon."
The boy mentioned here, who became, as I have said, Duke of Bedford
in 1700, married, in 1695, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of John Rowland
of Streatham, and died in 171 1, when he was succeeded by his son as
third Duke, and he, in turn, in 1732, by his brother — " the little Duke,"
as Walpole calls him, against whom Junius poured forth the vials of his
rhetorical anger and abuse.
Under the regime of this holder of the title, Bedford House seems
to have entered on a period of greater gaiety than had before charac-
terised it ; and we read, inter alia, of a great masquerade given here by
the Duke in 1748, which was graced by the presence of the King and
the Duke of Cumberland, and which is said to have been the most gorgeous
masked ball ever given up to that time. Walpole records two other balls
at Bedford House, at a later date ; one in May 1755, about which,
writing to Bentley, he says : " The night the King went (to Hanover)
there was a magnificent ball and supper at Bedford House. The Duke ^
was there : he was playing at hazard with a great heap of gold before
him : somebody said, he looked like the prodigal son and the fatted
calf both. In the dessert was a model of Walton Bridge in glass."
The other great entertainment mentioned by Walpole occurred four
years later, and, writing on April 26, 1759, to George Montagu, he
gives some details of it thus : " The ball at Bedford House on Monday
was very numerous and magnificent. The two princes were there, deep
hazard, and the Dutch deputies who are a proverb for their dullness.
. . . But the delightful part of the night was the appearance of the
Duke of Newcastle. . . . The Duchess (of Bedford) was at the very
upper end of the gallery . . . and Newcastle had nobody to attend him
but Sir Edward Montagu, who kept pushing him all up the gallery.
From thence he went into the hazard-room, and wriggled and shuflfled,
' The Duke of Cumberland.
BEDFORD HOUSE
93
and lisped and winked, and spied, till he got behind the D. of Cum-
berland, the D. of Bedford and Rigley."
Besides these splendid indoor receptions, for which Bedford House
became, at this period, famous, the Duchess was fond of giving al fresco
entertainments, for which the grounds of the mansion were admirably-
adapted ; and on one occasion her Grace sent out cards to her friends
" to take tea and walk in the fields " ! This lady was the Duke's second
wife, whom he married in 1737.'^
The Duke, who had filled in his time a number of great offices in
connection with his administration, of which Junius fell foul of him,
died in 1771, and was succeeded by his grandson, Francis Russell, who was
the last Duke to occupy Bedford House ; for two years before his death,
which occurred in 1802, he disposed of the property. On May 7,
1800,^ was commenced here by Mr. Christie, the sale of the contents
of the great house, the materials of which alone fetched between ;^5000
and j^6ooo, and the names of some of the pictures, with the prices they
realised, have happily been preserved. Thus the copies of Raphael's
cartoons, by Sir James Thornhill, which the Duke had placed in a gallery
specially constructed to receive them, and for which he had paid at the
sale of the artist's collection but ;^200, were purchased by the Duke of
Norfolk for £^z,o ; Raphael's " St. John Preaching in the Wilderness "
went for the absurd sum of 95 guineas ; and the representation of the
" Archduke Leopold's Gallery " by Teniers, for 210 guineas. A painting
of an Italian villa, by Gainsborough, fetched 90 guineas ; a landscape by
Cuyp, 200 guineas ; and a set of four battle pieces by Cassanovi, only
realised 15 guineas each, although they had cost the Duke more than
sixteen times that amount. There was also included in the sale a picture
of peculiar interest, depicting the famous duel, in Hyde Park, between
the Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun ; while some pieces of sculpture
were also disposed of, notably a Venus de Medicis and an Antinous
in bronze, which went for 20 guineas ; and what is described as a
" Venus couchant, from the antique," which fetched a similar amount.
The account of the sale is to be seen in the Annual Register of the day,
the writer of which adds that : " The week after, were sold the double
rows of lime trees in the garden, valued one at ^90 the other at ^80 ;
which are now all taken down, and the site of a new square, of nearly
the dimensions of Lincoln's Inn Fields, and to be called Russell Square,
' The first was Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Charles, third Earl of Sunderland ; she died
in 1734 ; the second, Lady Gertrude Leveson-Gower, daughter of John, Earl Gower.
' In Mr. George Redford's History of Art Sa/es, two sales of pictures belonging to this
Duke are mentioned ; one in May 1796, and that referred to in the text, but no details are
given.
94 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
has been laid out. The famous statue of Apollo, which was in the hall
at Bedford House, has been removed to Woburn Abbey ... it originally
cost looo guineas."
The reasons that induced the Duke of Bedford to give up so fine
a mansion as Bedford House are not very obvious. Society had not
as yet migrated so completely to the further west as to leave the place
in an isolated position ; nor had the house been allowed to get into such
a state of disrepair as would have made its reparation as costly as the
erection of a new residence. We know indeed that when, about 1757,
the new road from Paddington to Islington, now the Marylebone and
Euston Roads, was proposed, the fourth Duke strenuously opposed it,
because, says Walpole, " of the dust it v/ill make behind Bedford House,
and also on account of " some buildings proposed," " though if he were in
town," adds Walpole, who remarks that in summer he never was, " he
is too short-sighted to see the prospect " ; and it may possibly have been
that the inconvenience foreseen by the Duke was ultimately responsible
for his successor giving up the house.
It is interesting to know that just as Montagu House had once been
in danger of demohtion by the fury of the Gordon Rioters, some years
previously, in May 1765 to be precise, the Spital Fields weavers, smarting
under some real and many imaginary grievances, made an attack on the
wall of Bedford House, and began to demolish it, tearing up the flag-
stones and palings in the road in front of it ; and it is probable that,
had they not been prevented by the footguards who had been stationed
here in anticipation of something of the kind and who were reinforced
by some cavalry, the rioters would have made an attack on the house
itself. The Duke of Bedford was at this time Lord President of the
Council, and thus being a member of the Government was more or
less a marked man, and had to fear the physical force of popular resent-
ment as well as the invectives of the redoubtable Junius.
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CHAPTER IV
LP:ICESTER house, Etc.
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96 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
with it ; but it is for this latter reason that a short notice of it seems
admissible in these pages.
The house was erected hy Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, in the
time of Charles I., that nobleman having succeeded John Wymonde
Carewe in the occupancy of the ground on which it stood, formerly
belonging to the Hospital of St. Giles, which by exchange had then
passed into the hands of the Crown, by whom it was granted to Lord
Lisle, who in turn conveyed it to Carewe.
The mansion stood on the north-east side of what is now Leicester
Square but was then called Leicester Fields, and lay back a considerable
way from the road, having an ample courtyard in front ; while its gardens
extended as far as Gerrard Street in the rear, as may be seen by the view
of the Fields taken about 1700. The original residence was a building
of ample and even stately proportions built round a courtyard with a
projecting centre on its south side, its gardens extending practically
over the whole of what is now the north side of the Square, and being
divided from a large open tract of ground by an extensive wall. It v\'as
for long identified with the noble family of the Sidneys, and it was the
second member of this family, originally ennobled by the title of Earl
of Leicester in 161 8, who erected the later house, probably between
the years 1632 and 1636, on his return from his embassy to Denmark
in the former year.
Here the Earl continued to reside until the later years of his life,
when the mansion seems to have been occupied by various members
of his family who desired a temporary town house ; while it was occasionally
let when not in use in this way. During the Civil Wars, however, when
Charles had become a prisoner, the Parliament placed the Duke of
Gloucester and the Princess Elizabeth under the care of Lord Leicester,
and they must have spent some time in Leicester House in the intervals
of their sojourn at Penshurst. The house was to have another Royal
visitor, in the time of Charles H., during a very short time however,
for the Queen of Bohemia had made arrangements to remove hither
from Bohemia Palace, as it was called, next to Craven House, in February
1662, and indeed did so, but the hand of death was already upon her,
and she died within a fortnight of taking up her residence here. Some
years later Colbert, the French Ambassador, and brother of the more
famous minister of Louis XIV., occupied the house, and Pepys records
that a deputation of the Royal Society waited upon him here, on
September 21, 1668. Just thirty years later the Imperial Ambassador
was likewise lodged here, and a few years later stiU Prince Eugene, then
on a secret mission to this country, resided in the mansion ; so that the
LEICESTER HOUSE 97
interest of its various occupants was no less marked than the size and
importance of the house itself.
In 1 71 8 it was to become, instead of a private residence and merely
a temporary resting-place for royal personages and ambassadors, a per-
manent abode of royalty, for in that year George, Prince of Wales, having
quarrelled with his father, and being expelled from St. James's, bought
the mansion and took up his abode there, and here three years later the
Duke of Cumberland was born. The Prince occupied the place until
his accession, in 1727, and it was he who purchased the adjoining Savile
House and added it to the residence for the use of the Royal children ;
while it was from Leicester House that he issued his declaration on
succeeding to the Crown. When, some years later, his son quarrelled
with him, the latter became the owner of the house ; from which
double event Pennant not inaptly termed it " the pouting place of
princes."
Here Frederick, Prince of Wales, died in 175 1, and here his son George
was proclaimed king, in 1760, and shortly after removed to St. James's
Palace. The Princess-Dowager continued to reside here for another six
years, when she, too, removing to Carlton House, the place fell from its
high estate, and was occupied by various museums and exhibitions, the most
important of which was the once famous collection of Sir Ashton Lever,
which rejoiced in the high-sounding title of the Holophusikon. On the
death of Sir Ashton in 1788, his assemblage of curious objects was sold,
and Leicester House was not long afterwards demolished ; New Lisle
Street being formed through its gardens, and increasingly elaborate
buildings being erected from time to time on the site of the mansion
itself.^
DRURY OR CRAVEN HOUSE
Nearly at the south-east corner of Drury Lane where it used to join
Wych Street, and a little to the north of where the old Olympic Theatre
stood, is a cul de sac known as Craven Buildings which preserves the name
of the once famous and splendid Craven House, just as Drury Lane
perpetuates the earlier designation of the mansion. The great improve-
ment in the Strand, which has brought Kingsway into existence and
resuscitated the ancient Aldwych, has swept away the Olympic, which
1 Leicester House is too much identified as a Royal Palace to admit of any more extended
notice than this summary review in these pages ; but those who are interested in its annals
will find much of interest about it in the various histories of London, and particularly in Tom
Taylor's Leicester Square.
G
98 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
stood practically on the site of the old house which must have been one
of the most stately of any of those in this neighbourhood.^
The original mansion is generally supposed to have been erected
by Sir William Drury, who died in 1579, but there seems better authority
for considering that an earlier member of the family, namely Sir Roger
Drury, was its builder, and as he died in 1495, the better part of a century
is thus added to its age. What seems probable is that, as in the case
of so many of the old palaces of London, it was enlarged, or perhaps even
rebuilt, and Sir William Drury may have been responsible for such
additions. We know that he filled some important positions, such as
that of the Marshal of Berwick, as well as that of Lord Justice to the
Council in Ireland, and was besides a Knight of the Garter ; and it is
probable that the house that had descended to him was not sufficiently
spacious for the state which he must necessarily have kept up, as the head
of a great family and one moving in exalted official circles. Sir William
had been one of the supporters of Queen Mary when her throne was
threatened by the machinations of Northumberland and his puppets
Guildford Dudley and Lady Jane Grey, and Elizabeth is known to have
shown him marked favour ; and once when he had advocated her alliance
with the Duke of Anjou, she good-humouredly gave him a great clap
on the shoulder and replied, " I will never marry ; but I will ever bear
goodwill and favour to those who have liked and favoured the same ; ^
and that the Queen held Lady Drury ' in affectionate esteem is proved
by the sympathetic letter she wrote her on the death of Sir William.
It is probable therefore that Elizabeth was a visitor at Drury House, which
would alone have been sufficient to account for any enlargement Sir
William may have made. By a curious coincidence, after its owner's
death, Drury House was the scene of some of Essex's plotting against the
Queen, where he met those malcontents who were ready enough to further
his scheme of seizing the palace and the Tower ; but whether Essex had
taken the place or had found a congenial spirit in the successor of Sir
William is not recorded.
Another member of the family, Sir Robert Drury, " a gentleman
of a very noble state, and a more liberal mind," lived in Drury House
at a later date, and here he received the celebrated Dr. Donne, giving
him, according to Isaac Walton, " an useful apartment in his own large
' There is a good view of it, as well as a small plan, and another small picture of what
remained of the mansion at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in Wilkinson's Londinn
Illustrata.
• Bowes MSS., quoted by Agnes Strickland.
' Probably Lady Wylliams of Tame, who, according to Machyn, was married to William
Drure, on October 10, 1560.
CRAVEN HOUSE 99
house in Drury Lane," where the Doctor and his family resided, and
it was when the two friends were on a visit to Paris that Donne had his
celebrated " vision " of his wife " with her hair hanging about her
shoulders, and a dead child in her arms " ; ^ when a messenger being sent
to England, it was found that at that very hour Mrs. Donne had given
birth to a dead infant.
Bishop Hall, who wrote what he called the Virgidemiarum, or a Tooth-
less Satire, was also a visitor at Drury House, from which it would appear
that Sir Robert was a patron of literature of the more recondite order.
Drury House passed from the old family from whom it took its name
to the Cravens, the most illustrious of whom was that William, first Earl
of Craven, the hero of Kreuznach, who died here in 1697.
The original Craven House which Gerbier designed, apparently for
Lord Craven's father. Sir William Craven, in 1620, was an imitation of
Heidelberg, and was, subsequently, destroyed by fire ; the second
mansion was built by Captain Wynne, Gerbier's pupil, for the first Lord
Craven, who was one of those fine unselfish characters which illumine
the age in which they live. Besides being a great soldier, he was also
as renowned in peace, and even the glory of his great victory pales before
the heroism he displayed by remaining, one of the very few men of
quality who did so, in London during the Great Plague, and endeavouring
by his active philanthropy to mitigate something of the horrors of that
awful scourge. He it was who built the Lazaretto or Hospital, on what
was afterwards termed Pest House Fields, near where Golden Square
now stands ; well might Pennant call him " the intrepid soldier, the
gallant lover, the genuine patriot."
" The gallant lover " refers to one of the most romantic episodes
in his career ; his devotion to the unfortunate Queen of Bohemia, " The
Queen of Hearts," who was lodged next door to Craven House, as Drury
House was now called, for about six months when she came to this country
in 1661 ; and only left it, as we have seen, to die in Leicester House
close by.
Lord Craven, who, it has been said, was married to the Queen,
arranged everything for her comfort here and at Leicester House ; and
for many years previously, after the overthrow of what little power her
husband the Elector Palatine ever possessed, she as his widow seems to
have lived on the bounty of her faithful adherent.
When Craven House was rebuilt by Lord Craven,^ he also erected
' See a long account of this curious incident in Walton's Life of Donne, 1805, vol. i. p. 35
etseq.
^ He was created a Viscount and Earl of Craven, in 1664, by Charles II., who gave him
the Colonelcy of the Coldstream Guards on the death of Monk, Earl of Albemarle.
loo THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
another mansion, called Bohemia House or Palace, next to it, as a resi-
dence * for his Royal mistress, according to Timbs, although in a plan,
dated 1788, the place is shown marked " Bohemia Palace or Craven House,"
as if the two residences were identical.
The extensive gardens attached to Craven House afforded their owner
an opportunity of indulging his love of horticulture, and of receiving
such sympathetic friends as Ray and Evelyn ; and Leigh Hunt, referring
to this, says : " The garden of Craven House ran in the direction of the
present Drury Lane ; so that where there is now a bustle of a very
different sort, we may fancy the old soldier busying himself with his
flower beds, and John Evelyn discoursing upon the blessing of peace and
privacy." In 1723, these gardens were built over, and Craven Buildings
erected on their site ; while formerly on the wall at the bottom of these
buildings was to be seen a large fresco painting of Lord Craven mounted
on his charger, which, however, after being repainted once or twice, was
covered with plaster and finally destroyed. Craven House gradually fell
into decay, being let out as tenements, and at the beginning of the nine-
teenth century entirely demolished ; the Olympic Theatre was built on
its site, by Astley, in 1805.
HARCOURT HOUSE
Although Harcourt House has disappeared, it did so such a short
time since that its sombre exterior is within the recollection of most of
us. Occupying nearly the whole of the west side of Cavendish Square,
it could but be partially seen rising above the wall which effectually
screened its chief rooms from the gaze of the profanum vulgus. I recollect
going over it not long before it was demolished, and nothing then could
have exceeded the dreariness of its interior, except perhaps the gloom
which sat perpetually on its outward walls. The very size of its rooms, and
the remains of their former magnificence, with their elaborately carved
and moulded cornices ; their ceilings painted en grisaille and their fine
old chimney-pieces, added to the sense of desolation which seemed to
have irrevocably settled on the whole place ; there was something pathetic
in seeing the last sad days of what had once enjoyed so full and splendid
a life ; but at the same time one could not but remember that a portion
of its career had been passed under a shadow sufficiently gloomy as to
anticipate its final decline and fall.
' It is known that he erected, at a cost of /6o,ooo, a fine house at Hampstead Marshall, in
Berkshire, for her use. It was largely altered by Captain Wynne; and was burnt down in
1718.
HARCOURT HOUSE loi
When Cavendish Square was laid out in 171 7, the first house to be
completed was what was, in the original numbering, No. 15, later known
as Harcourt House. Besides being the first, it was by far the largest and
most important residence in the Square, although had the Duke of
Chandos completed the immense erection which he designed to occupy
the whole of the north side of the Square, Harcourt House, ample as it
was, would have sunk into comparative insignificance ; but the Duke
never completed, indeed he never even commenced, the main portion
of his intended palace, and thus Harcourt House was and remained the
dominating building in this " quadrate." It was erected for Robert
Benson, Lord Bingley, whose name appears in the Rate Books for 1730,
the first stone being laid in 1722.
Robert Benson, of Red Hall, near Wakefield, and of Bramham Park,
sat in Parliament for many years as member for York ; subsequently
filling many Government offices, such as that of Lord of the Treasury,
from August 1710 to April 171 1, and including that of Chancellor of the
Exchequer;' he was created Lord Bingley in 1 71 3. Lady Wentworth,
writing to her son on April 28, 1709, thus refers to him : " Your brother
Wentworth tels me Mr. Benson is to loock affter your buildin in York-
shire. I have found him out to be an old acquantence of myne, his
father was your father's mortell ennemy ... I have kist him many a
time ; he was a very prety boy, he has a good estate." According to the
Caracteres de flusters Ministres de la Cour d'' Angleterre, supposed to have
been written by Lord Raby, Robert Benson is described as of " no
extraction," his father having been " an attorney and no great character
for an honest man . . . concerned in the affairs of Oliver Cromwell " ;
and the story Peter Wentworth tells of his son's application to the
Heralds' College for supporters, when he was made a Peer, confirms
this ; for reply was sent him that '' they could find no arms to be
supported " !
It is, however, in view of the great house he erected in Cavendish
Square, interesting to know that he was considered a great amateur autho-
rity on building matters ; and he gave good advice in this connection to
Lord Raby through Peter Wentworth, on one occasion ; while Lord
Bute (the father of George III.'s Minister), writing to Lord StraflFord,
remarks that " your lordship is pleas'd to be so mery with your humble
servant as to prefer my loe taste in architecture to the consummated
experience of Bingley." It will be remembered that it was through the
' It would seem, from a letter of Peter Wentworth, dated November 7, 1710, that this was
anticipated, and I find that on Harley being made Earl of Oxford, Benson was again named
for the post, which he held from May 171 1 to 1713. See \\'enl-j.iorth Papers, p. 197, and Lady
Cowpei^s Diary, p. 31.
I02 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
representations of Colin Campbell and Benson; that Wren was dismissed
from the office of Surveyor-General; in 171 8, after having held the post
for fifty years, in favour of Benson's brother.
In the Vitruvius Britannicus published by Campbell is a design for
a house at Wilbury, by Benson; so that, in the absence of any actual
knowledge as to who was the architect of Harcourt House, it is not un-
reasonable to suppose that it was largely built from plans prepared by
himself; and although in the Crowle Pennant there is a design for the
house, " as it was drawn by Mr. Archer, but built and altered to what it
now is by Edward Wilcox, Esq.," this would seem to refer to enlargements,
&c., made by the second Lord Harcourt.*
Lord Bingley married Lady EHzabeth Finch, eldest daughter of
Heneage, Earl of Aylesford, a long epigram on which lady from the hand
of Walpole may be found in one of his letters to Mann.
In London and its Environs, a Mr. Lane is given as succeeding Lord
Bingley in the tenancy of the house, but his name does not appear in
the Rate Books, after Lord Bingley's disappears ; whereas Lord Harcourt,
who had been living previously in a smaller house on the east side of
the Square with his father, is given as " Harcott," at No. 15, for 1732 ;
in 1735 both his name and that of Lady Harcourt are given as living
in separate houses here, and in 1738, the name of the lady alone appears.
It would appear that Simon, first Lord Harcourt, sometime Lord Chan-
cellor, had occupied the house on the east side of the Square, as he is
said to have died in it on July 28, 1727, and that when his son bought
No. 15, the Dowager Lady Harcourt (mentioned in the Rate Books)
probably still occupied the smaller house on the east side of the Square.
Walpole called Simon, the second Lord Harcourt, who was created an
Earl in 1749, "civil and sheepish," but he filled a number of high offices
with some success, although Wraxall considered his manner " too grave
and measured " for him to acquire general attachment in Ireland, where
he was Lord-Lieutenant from 1772 till 1777.
The second Earl Harcourt greatly improved and enlarged the mansion,
and it afterwards passed into the hands of the Dukes of Portland."'
' The handsome offices and stables originally at the back of the house, beyond the garden,
were designed by Ware. Archer was a "groom-porter of all His Majesty's houses in England
and elsewhere." He was an architect of considerable merit, although St. John's Church, West-
minster, which he designed, is hardly sufficient to prove this. Lady Cowper refers to him in her
interesting Diary.
■ The second Duke had married Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, heiress of Edward,
second Earl of Oxford, who had succeeded to the estate on which Cavendish Square stood
through his wife, the heiress of the Duke of Newcastle, who purchased the property, in 1708.
If therefore a ninety-nine years' lease had been granted of Harcourt House in 1717, when the
Square was laid out, this would expire in 1816, so that the property would then, in any case,
have naturally reverted to the Duke of Portland as representing the original ground landlord.
HARCOURT HOUSE 103
From the fact that Lord Harcourt's name disappears from the Rate
Books in 1738, that date may mark the year when the house passed into
the hands of the Portland family (in which case it would have been under
the second Duke), in the occupancy of which family it remained till the
death of the eccentric fifth Duke, which occurred on December 6, 1879.
He it was who erected the great screen round the garden at the back,
and who lived here in almost monastic seclusion, much to the wonder-
ment of the curious, who were never tired of ventilating stories, mostly
apocryphal, of his extraordinary manner of life, of which we have heard
so much in a recent cause celebre, the result of which has, it may be hoped,
done much to blow away these flimsy rumours. The fact is that the house
had always such a mysterious appearance that half the tales circulated
may have gained additional credence from the fact of its forbidding
exterior. Even in Lord Bingley's time, Ralph wrote that he considered
it " one of the most singular pieces of architecture about town," and
likened it rather to " a convent than the residence of a man of quality."
Angelo, in his Reminiscences, on the other hand, thought it had " more
the appearance of a Parisian mansion than any other house in London,"
on account of its high court walls and its forte cochere !
Thackeray took it, or at least some of its characteristics, as the original
of his Gaunt House, and considering the doings that went on in Lord
Steyne's residence, perhaps this was another reason why peaceful and
wondering citizens should have pointed it out as a home of mystery.
In more recent years Harcourt House had a slight resuscitation of
life given it when Lord Breadalbane lived there for a time ; but two
years ago the inevitable overtook it, and now a block of stupendous flats
reigns in its stead.
MONMOUTH HOUSE
Just as Harcourt House was the chief feature of Cavendish Square,
so Monmouth House once proudly dominated the formerly fashionable
Soho Square, and although one or two other great houses were near by,
such as Falconberg House and Carhsle House, afterwards to be closely
identified with the notorious Mrs. Cornelys, Monmouth House was the
only residence in the Square that can rightly be termed a palace.
It is said to have been designed by Wren,^ and built in 168 1, for the
Duke of Monmouth, at the time when Soho Square was formed, and if it
was not actually the first, was one of the first two houses to be erected
' Thombury's Old and New London.
I04 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
here. The Rate Books ^ show the Duke to have been in occupation at the
beginning of the following year ; but this was a period of storm and stress
for the noble owner, who must have had very little enjoyment out of
his new dwelling which, tmmemor sepulcri, like so many others, he had caused
to be built ; indeed he seems to have been relatively little here, as the
numerous plots he was engaged in made his own home anything but a
safe asylum ; and we find him hiding in the houses of his friends, some-
times at Lord Anglesey's in Drury Lane, sometimes in Counsellor
Thompson's in Essex Street ; anon in lodgings in Holborn. As all the
world knows, he was beheaded in 1685, so that a very few years of inter-
mittent enjoyment of his palace was permitted him.
After the Duke's death, the property was purchased, presumably from
his widow,* by Lord Bateman, who resided here for a time, but as the
stream of fashion flowed westward, his lordship went with it, and the
seemingly inevitable fate of all the fine old London houses overtook
Monmouth House, a portion of which, in 1717, was converted into
auction rooms. Many years later, notably in 1763, it had a brief return
of prosperity, when it was rented by the Comte de Guerchy, then French
Ambassador in London, and in the memoirs of the period references will
be found to entertainments given here by His Excellency, who appears
to have occupied the mansion for about ten years ; while in a contem-
porary newspaper, for April 1764, we read that "a new chapel is erecting
for the use of His Excellency the Count de Guerchy, the French
Ambassador, in Queen Street, near Thrift (now Frith) Street, Soho " ;
this chapel being built on a portion of the gardens of Monmouth House.
When M. Grosley visited this country in 1765, he mentions the re-
sidence of the French Ambassador as among the four in London which
he considers alone " comparable aux grands hotels de Paris" and as these
included Bedford and Chesterfield Houses, as well as the house occupied
by the Spanish Ambassador, we should, from this selection, have good
evidence of the splendour of old Monmouth House, even if the front
view of it given by J. T. Smith in his Antiquities of London were not an
additional proof of the architectural excellence of its facade. Besides
this, however, we are luckily able to rehabilitate certain features of the
place by the help of Smith, who in his Life of Nollekens gives the follow-
ing account of the building which, we must remember, he saw under
' As, curiously enough, Robert Carey, Earl of Monmouth, and his son the second and last
Earl (he died in 1661), were both inhabitants of this quarter, it has been assumed that the
name of Monmouth House was taken from their title, but this will, 1 think, hardly bear
consideration. Their residence was, however, probably also known by their name.
^ He had married, in 1663, Lady Anne Scott, daughter and heiress of Francis, second Earl
of Buccleuch.
MONMOUTH HOUSE 105
all the disadvantages of partial demolition. Here is what he has recorded
about it : " Mr. Nollekens, on his way to the Roman Catholic Chapel,
in Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he was christened, stopped
to show me the dilapidations of the Duke of Monmouth's house in Soho
Square. It was on the south side, and occupied the site of the houses
which now stand in Bateman's Buildings ; and though the workmen
were employed in pulling it down, we ventured to go in. The gate
entrance was of massive ironwork supported by stone piers, surmounted
by the crest of the owner of the house ; and within the gates there was a
spacious courtyard for carriages. The hall was ascended by steps. There
were eight rooms on the ground floor ; the principal one was a dining-
room towards the south, the carved and gilt panels of which had contained
whole-length pictures. At the corners of the ornamented ceiling which
was of plaster, and over the chimney-piece, the Duke of Monmouth's
arms were displayed.
" From a window we descended into a paved yard, surrounded by a
red-brick wall with heavy stone copings, which was, to the best of my
recollection, full twenty feet in height. The staircase was of oak, the
steps very low, and the landing-places tessellated with woods of light
and dark colours, similar to those now remaining on the staircase of Lord
Russell's house, late Lowe's Hotel, Covent Garden, and in several rooms
of the British A'luseum.
" As we ascended, I remember Mr. Nollekens noticing the busts of
Seneca, Caracalla, Trajan, Adrian, and several others, upon ornamental
brackets. The principal room on the first floor, which had not been
disturbed by the workmen, was lined with blue satin, superbly decorated
with pheasants and other birds in gold. The chimney-piece was richly
ornamented with fruit and foliage, similar to the carvings which sur-
rounded the altar of St. James's Church, Piccadilly, so beautifully executed
by Grinling Gibbons. In the centre over this chimney-piece, within a
wreath of oak leaves, there was a circular recess which evidently had been
designed for the reception of a bust. The heads of the panels of the
brown window shutters, which were very lofty, were gilt ; and the piers
between the windows, from stains upon the silk, had probably been filled
with looking-glasses. The scaffolding, ladders, andj numerous workmen
rendered it too dangerous for us to go higher, or see more of this most
interesting house. My father had, however, made a drawing of the
external front of it, which I engraved for my first work, entitled
Antiquities of London, which has been noticed by Mr. Pennant in his
valuable and entertaining anecdotes of the Metropolis." ^
' Life of Nollekens, by J. T. Smith, edited by Mr. Edmund Gosse, 1895, pp. 53-5;.
io6 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
The property on which Monmouth House stood subsequently be-
longed to the Dukes of Portland, and in the Grace collection is a plan,
drawn by John White, in 1799, which shows the large extent of ground
occupied by Monmouth House and its gardens which originally covered
the area between Greek Street and Frith Street, and reached back as far
as Queen Street.
When the Comte de Guerchy's tenancy expired, and the mansion was
demolished in 1773, the ground on which it stood was let on building
leases, and on part of it Bateman's Buildings ^ were erected, which,
with the neighbouring Bateman Street, perpetuates the title of the second
owner of Monmouth House ; but there is nothing now to record the
association of the mansion with its original unfortunate possessor.
ASHBURNHAM HOUSE
Unlike Monmouth House, of which every trace has long since dis-
appeared, Ashburnham House was standing till within a few years ago (i 897),
but the site is now covered by the immense block of fiats which has a
frontage in Dover Street, Piccadilly, and occupies the whole of the south side
of Hay Hill. The old mansion stood some way back from Dover Street,
having a courtyard enclosed by railings in front of it ; it was numbered
30 in the street, and was for many years the town house of the Earls of
Ashburnham.
It would appear that when Dover Street was formed in 1686, Lord
Dover,' the ground landlord, occupied a house on the east side of the
thoroughfare ; in 1700, however, the Rate Books show him to have re-
moved to the west side, probably to a house erected by himself, which
Macky calls " a very noble " one, on the site afterwards occupied by
Ashburnham House. Lord Dover died in 1708, but his widow occupied
the house till the end of 1726 ; shortly after which the following ad-
vertisement appeared in the Daily 'Journal, for January 6, 1726-7 : —
"To be sold by auction on Wednesday the ist of February, 1726-1727, the
large Dwelling House of the Right Hon. the Countess of Dover deceased in Dover
Street, St. James's ; consisting of seven rooms on a floor, with closets, a large and
beautiful staircase finely painted by Mr. Laguerre, with three coach houses, and
stables for 10 horses, and all manner of conveniences for a great family."
Nothing appears to have been done during 1727, however, for in the
' In Horwood's plan, 1794, they are shown running down the centre of the site on which
old Monmouth House stood.
' Henry Jermyn, second son of Thomas Jermyn, and nephew of Henry Jermyn, Earl of
St. Albans, created a peer in 1685, and advanced to an earldom four years later.
ASHBURNHAM HOUSE 107
Rate Books Lady Dover's name is marked through with a pen, indicating
that the house was empty; but in 1728, it is omitted from the Rates
altogether, which would tend to show that the house had been demolished ;
and as in 1729 the name of James Brudenel, Esq., appears, it seems almost
certain that he had purchased Lady Dover's house, probably in 1727,
and had erected a new mansion on its site ; the building operations being
completed in 1729. Brudenel was a member of the family ennobled by
the earldom of Cardigan in 1661 ; and I trace him as residing in Dover
Street till 1735 ; six years later the fourth Earl of Cardigan, who was
created Duke of Montagu in 1766, is shown as occupying the same house,
which he apparently retained till 1750, at which time he took the name
and arms of Montagu, having married Lady Mary Montagu, daughter
and co-heiress of John, second Duke of Montagu, and succeeded his father-
in-law in the occupancy of old Montagu House, Whitehall, to be precise,
in 1749. _
Dover House, from 1750 to 1758, is then shown in the Rate Books to
have been occupied by the fourth Earl of CarHsle, who died on September 4
of the latter year ; but it is probable that he was merely renting it, as the
present Lord Ashburnham tells me that the residence was purchased by
his great-grandfather, the second Earl, whose name first appears in the
Rate Books for 1759, from the Duke of Montagu, or as he then was Earl
of Cardigan.
It would therefore appear that the mansion demolished in 1897 was
that erected by James Brudenel, in 1729 ; ' although it had obviously been
much altered since that date, probably by Robert Adam, who is known
to have designed the gateway and lodge-entrance in 1773, and to have
made decorative additions to the interior, if he did not actually rebuild
the place a second time. In the Crace collection is a plan of Ashburnham
House which is described as " formerly Dover House."
The mansion remained the town-house of the Earls of Ashburnham
till its destruction, but at various times it was let ; notably for several
years to the Russian Ambassadors, of whom Prince Lieven was the first
to occupy it, and Pozzo di Borgo the last ; while Lord Ashburnham
informs me that he remembers it being given up by Baron Brunnow
shortly before the outbreak of the Crimean War.^
During Prince Eleven's tenancy, the celebrated Princess Lieven held
here her salon, whither resorted members both of the Government and
1 I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. W. E. Bowen, who took much trouble to help me in
verifying the data from the Rate Books given above.
* Greville speaks, in May 1853, of Brunnow "dreading above all things the possibility of
his having to leave this country."
io8 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
of the Opposition, a characteristic that differentiated it from the
assembUes at Holland House, or those presided over by Lady Hertford or
Lady Jersey.
Unfortunately there is little to record about Ashburnham House,
except that it possessed, in common with other great mansions in London,
splendid and well-proportioned rooms, and was full of those fine internal
decorations, such as elaborately moulded ceilings and cornices, and beauti-
fully carved mantelpieces and over-doors, with which the eighteenth
century loved to heighten the splendour of its more impressive dwellings.
The position formerly occupied by Ashburnham House deserves
a word because of its historical interest in connection with Wyatt's re-
bellion. Hay Hill takes its name from the Aye Brook which ran near
here through the gardens of Lansdowne House, and from which Brook
Street is so named. When Sir Thomas Wyatt marched on London,
in 1554, with the view of overturning the throne of Mary, he planted
his cannon on the top of Hay Hill, probably on the very spot where
Ashburnham House afterwards stood ; and here, according to Machyn,
a skirmish took place between his forces and " the queeyns men " when,
adds the diarist, " he and ye captayns wher overcum, thanke be unto
God." In accordance with the retributive justice of the period, Wyatt's
head was, after his execution, hung " on the gallowes at Hay HiU," ^
which would appear to point to the previous existence of a " tree " here ;
unless one was specially erected for this purpose, which the use of the
definite article does not seem to indicate.
MARLBOROUGH HOUSE
We must now turn our attention to the half-dozen houses which,
although still in existence, have passed from private ownership, and can
therefore only be considered as private palaces in relation to their former
occupants. The first of these is Marlborough House, which has for so long
been identified with the reigning family, that for many people much of
its early interest has become merged in the lustre shed on it by its more
recent occupiers.
Marlborough House was erected during the years 1709 and 1710,
for the great Duke of Marlborough, Queen Anne having leased the
ground on which it stands to her friend the Duchess who, to mortify
Vanbrugh, employed Wren to draw out plans for the residence.
By a plan of St. James's Park as it was at the Restoration the whole
' Stow and Machyn, the latter of whom adds, " whar dyd hang 3 men in chynes."
f'ifMil^ff !*fe
Henry 1
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/V.jiong the Coxe M'---- . ^wv...4u< j. vvha»- •^'"'
Marlborough House ha c and Durhess of
some interesting detaus. T
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no THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
ever was built " ; and we learn further from Her Grace that : " In yearly
rents I pay to the Crown are five shillings ; and ^it,. 15. o for the house ;
and ^13. 15. o for the four little houses ; the land-tax on the house is
^60 a year."
From a perspective view of St. James's Palace by J. Maurer, we can
see to some extent what Marlborough House looked like when finished ;
it differed from its present appearance in that it was without the upper
storey, which was subsequently added by the third Duke, who also built
some additional rooms on the ground floor.
Macky, who published his journey through England in the year of
the first Duke's death, 1722, thus speaks of the house as it was at that time :
" Marlborough House, the palace of the Duke of Marlborough," he
writes, " is in every way answerable to the grandeur of its master. Its
situation is more confined than that of the Duke of Buckingham's ; ^
but the body of the house much nobler, more compact, and the apart-
ments better disposed. It is situated at the west end of the King's
garden ' on the Park side, and fronts the Park, but with no other prospect
but the view. Its court is very spacious and finely paved ; the offices
are large and on each side as you enter ; the stairs mounting to the gate
are very noble ; and in the vestibule as you enter, are finely painted the
Battles of Hochstet and {sic) Blenheim, with the taking Marshal TaUard
prisoner." ^ These paintings were the work of Laguerre and covered no
less than 500 square yards of surface,* and are dismissed by Walpole
as " some things at Marlborough House."
At the north-east corner of the house is the foundation-stone, on
which are cut these words : " Laid by her Grace the Duchess of Marl-
borough, May 24, and June 4, 1709," so that next year will see the
bi-centenary of the palace.
It would seem that, at the accession of George I., the Duke of Marl-
borough, in order probably to further his interest with the new sovereign,
offered his house to the Prince and Princess of Wales ; and in the Weekly
Post the circumstance is mentioned thus : " The Duke of Marlborough
has presented his house to the Prince and Princess of Wales ; and it is
said a terrace walk will be erected to join the same to St. James's House ;
and that the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough are to have the late
Earl of Ranelagh's house at Chelsea College." There is, however, no
further record of this gift being made ; indeed, it is not unlikely that
' Buckingham House, now Buckingham Palace.
' This was afterwards Carlton House Garden.
■^ Vol. i. p. 127. Macky also notes that "there are abundance of fine pictures in this
palace."
' London Past and Present.
MARLBOROUGH HOUSE iii
the perpetual quarrels between the King and the Heir-apparent would
have alone been sufficient to make the residence of the latter so near
St. James's anything but desirable ; and eager as Marlborough may have
been to pay his court to the future sovereign, he may have regretted
making an offer which may be supposed to have been little acceptable
to the sovereign in esse.
Although there are magnificent rooms in the mansion, Wren's forte
was not domestic architecture, and there is no doubt but that the con-
venience of the internal arrangements as affecting the relative positions
of the reception-rooms and the offices, was sacrificed to the outward
appearance of the house ; indeed a writer describing the rooms, in 1865,
gives an amusing picture of the progress of provisions from the kitchen
to the dining-room as taking this route : " First downstairs to the base-
ment ; secondly, through the basement corridors ; thirdly, upstairs
again by any one of the three equally awkward means ; and fourthly, so
on to the dining room in a manner still as awkward as the rest." ^
The Duke and Duchess continued to reside at Marlborough House
until the death of the former, which occurred here in 1722 ; when, on
August 6th, that magnificent funeral procession, " one of the most im-
posing that the MetropoHs of England had ever witnessed," in which
figured the car with its violet canopy, specially made for the purpose
by the Duchess's orders, and which on a notable occasion she refused to
lend to the Duchess of Buckingham, passed through a portion of the
garden wall which had been demolished for the purpose. Shortly after-
wards the Duchess, in bed as was her wont, received the Lord Mayor
and Corporation of London, who came all the way from the City to
thank her for the present of a fat buck !
Indeed, after the Duke's death this redoubtable lady, about whom
and her notorious bad temper so much has been written and so many
stories retailed, reigned like a queen in Marlborough House, saying and
doing all manner of strange things. The tale of her eccentricities is
endless. When the preparations for the marriage of the Princess Anne
with the Prince of Orange were toward, a boarded gallery was put up
close to the windows of Marlborough House, and was allowed to remain
there an unconscionable time, whereupon the Duchess, eyeing it with
indignation, was wont to remark, " I wonder how long my neighbour
George will leave his orange chests here." But she had to put up with
a more permanent inconvenience than this. The entrance to Marl-
borough House from Pall Mall was always, as it is to-day, awkward and
insignificant, and the Duchess was anxious to purchase the houses on
' The Gentleman's House, by R. Kerr.
112 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
the ground to the east of it, in order that she might make a more fitting
gateway, but Sir Robert Walpole getting wind of her intention, out of
mere spite, bought the property in question, and still further blocked
up the front of Marlborough House by erecting other buildings on the
vacant ground. No wonder the angry Duchess drew the distinction that
it was wrong to wish Sir Robert dead, but only common justice to wish
him hanged ! particularly when we remember that Walpole once again got
the better of her when he found out that she was trying to marry her
granddaughter Lady Diana Spencer to the Prince of Wales and had
offered ^^i 0,000 as dowry, and effectually prevented the scheme from
being carried through.
The Duchess has been called
"The wisest fool much time has ever made,"
and Vanbrugh, who had no reason to love her Grace, it must be con-
fessed, speaks of her as that " wicked woman of Marlborough " ; while
Swift, who hated her with perhaps less reason, records her " sordid
avarice, disdainful pride, and ungovernable rage " ; but when all is said,
she must have been a beautiful woman, and frequently a warm friend ;
and to her " clear apprehension and true judgment " no less an authority
than Burnet bears witness.
Her death occurred at Marlborough House in her eighty-fifth year.
She had been told that she must be blistered or she would die ; but age
could not wither her indomitable spirit : " I won't be blistered and I
won't die," she exclaimed in a paroxysm of anger ; but Death is deaf
as well as bHnd, and on October 18, 1744, the old fighter ceased from
troubling.
I find a curious anecdote of old Duchess Sarah in De Saussure's book
on England. At the Coronation of George H. it appears that the pro-
cession in the Abbey was at one time brought to a full stop, whereupon
" the Dowager-Duchess of Marlborough took a drum from a drummer,
and seated herself on it. The crowd laughed and shouted at seeing the
wife of the great and celebrated General Duke of Marlborough, more
than seventy years of age, seated on a drum in her robes of state and in
such a solemn procession." ^
Four years after the Duchess's death, certain old houses that had
hitherto stood between Marlborough House and the Palace were re-
moved, under the direction of John Vardy, the architect who helped to
build Spencer House close by. At this time the second Duke of Marl-
borough, grand-nephew of the Duchess, resided here ; and on his death,
' A Foreign View of England.
MARLBOROUGH HOUSE 113
in 1758, he was succeeded in its occupancy by his son, the third Duke,
who added to the building and made other improvements.' On his
death, in 1817, the remainder of the lease of the property was purchased
by the Crown, as a London residence for the Princess Charlotte on her
marriage with Prince Leopold, but before the purchase was completed
the Princess died ; the Prince, however, resided here for several years,
paying a rent of ;^3000 a year. Later it became the town residence of
the Dowager Queen Adelaide, until her death in 1849; and in the
following year it was settled on the Prince of Wales. As, however, at that
time, he was too young to have a separate establishment, the mansion
was granted temporarily to the then newly-formed Department of Science
and Art, and under its auspices the Vernon Gallery, inter alia, was for a
time housed within its walls. In 1861, the house was remodelled as a
residence for the Heir-apparent ; the stables being added two years later.
Marlborough House may thus be considered in the light of a Royal
Palace for nearly the last hundred years of its existence, and as such has
no proper right to be included, except in the summary way in which I
have dealt with its later history, in these pages. If, however, in more
recent days its fortunes have been indissolubly connected with His
Majesty the King as well as with the present Prince of Wales, its earlier
history is as closely identified with the great soldier who taught the
doubtful battle where to rage, and with his imperious and beautiful
Duchess.
SCHOMBERG HOUSE
A little to the east of the entrance to Marlborough House in Pall
Mall stands a solitary fragment, the west wing, of the once splendid
mansion known as Schomberg House. Amid the classic fronts of in-
numerable clubs which have borrowed their fa9ades from half a hundred
palaces, the remains of old Schomberg House look as much out of place
as might a courtier of the time of William III. if seen strolling down
Pall Mall to-day ; for, indeed, this street of streets has been rebuilt out
of all knowledge, and preserves so little of its former appearance that the
ghosts of those who used to loiter along it would hardly know their way
until they caught sight of the clock-tower of the palace hard by, which
alone seems to defy time royally amidst the ever-changing kaleidoscope
' "This house with offices, yards, gardens, was granted by the Crown, 6th June 1785, to
George, Duke of Marlborough, for 50 years, together with a piece of ground in Pall Mall, now
the front court yard, for 31 years, which were valued at ;^6oo per annum, fine £2,0 ; new rents
£61. 5. o. and £12,. 15. o." — Malcolm's Londitium Redivivum, vol. iv. p. 317.
H
114 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
of architectural fashion. And just as those of the Augustan age will
look in vain for an unmutilated Schomberg House, so shall we in a few
years' time seek fruitlessly for the solid and dreary edifice which occupied
the better part of its site. No longer does the activity of the War
Office simmer in Pall Mall ; no longer does Sidney Herbert muse, and
turn his back upon it ; for just as the original building gave way to its
dreary successor, so will that upstart be one day supplanted by yet another
club, before whose doors the panting motor will heave where once the
stately sedan was solemnly set down.
It is curious how few who tread the streets raise their eyes to the
upper stories of houses or shops, and this is perhaps accountable for the
fact that when a landmark vanishes its outward semblance is so soon for-
gotten ; but Schomberg House, or rather the fragment of it that still
exists, compels attention from the unwonted nature of its architectural
features ; the eye thus attracted becomes conscious of the circular tablet
which, after much wrestling with the dirt that habitually begrimes
it, at length makes us aware that Gainsborough here breathed his last,
and so the place has come to have for many an interest from the fact
alone that here the great artist painted his imperishable portraits, played
on his beloved fiddle, and in the last scene of all saw himself wafted to
the celestial mansions in Vandyck's company. And there is little doubt
but that this association makes for the chief glory of the place ; but it
has had a far earlier history : it has been connected with other great
names, as we shall see.
Schomberg House, which, by-the-bye, is numbered 8i and 82 Pall Mall,
preserves in its name the title of the illustrious first Duke of Schomberg
who was killed at the Battle of the Boyne, and over whose death even
the impassive William HI. wept ; but it was not he who built the place ;
the credit of this belongs to his third son, who, in 1693, succeeded to the
dukedom on the death of his younger brother, the fifth son of the first
Duke, who by a curious arrangement first inherited the title which never
passed to the eldest son of the first Duke at all, although he was living
even at the time of the third Duke's accession.
Before the erection of Schomberg House, its site had been occupied
by a less imposing dwelling, which, according to Timbs, was built in 1650,
and was described as " a fair mansion, enclosed with a garden abutting
on Pall Mall, and near to Charing Cross," at a time when Pall Mall was
planted with elm trees, and when the half-a-dozen houses then in exist-
ence on the south side of the street were surrounded " by large meadows,
always green, in which the ladies walked in summer time." Ten years
later, the house was occupied by, amongst others, Edward Griffin,
SCHOMBERG HOUSE 115
Treasurer of the Chamber, and by the Countess of Portland, probably
the widow of the second Earl, a daughter of the Duke of Lennox.
The new house was erected on this spot about 1698, and Narcissus
Luttrell thus refers to the circumstance, under date of November 5th
of that year : " Portland House in the Pall Mall is rebuilt, and will be
richly furnished for Duke Schomberg, General of the forces in England."
From the same authority we learn that a grant of no less than ^^4000 a
year had been made the Duke two years previously, being the interest
on the ^100,000 which had been given by Parliament to the first Duke,
apparently for his lifetime only ; so that he was in a condition to keep
up a fine house.
The furnishing must have been completed expeditiously, for in
January 1699, ^^ ^^^^ °^ Schomberg entertaining here " in a splendid
manner," the French Ambassador, the Duke of Ormonde, " and other
persons of quality"; while on September 10, 1703, he gave a banquet
here to the Portuguese and Prussian Ambassadors and others.
Later in the same year Schomberg House was like to have been
destroyed, for a party of disbanded soldiers who thought they had a
grudge against its owner as Commander-in-Chief, assembled before the
mansion and would probably have succeeded in demolishing it but for the
timely arrival of the military. The following entry in Luttrell's Diary
for October lOth of this year, indirectly bears on this circumstance :
" Yesterday one Murray, a disbanded trooper, was convicted at the
quarter sessions for Westminster for speaking reflecting words on Duke
Schomberg ; his wife was also convicted for speaking seditious words
against his majestic."
Among the interior decorations of Schomberg House were the paint-
ings on the grand staircase, which were the work of Peter Berchett, who
came to England about this time (he had previously paid a visit of a
year's duration, in 168 1), and was employed to paint the ceiling of Trinity
College Chapel, Oxford, as well as the summer house at Ranelagh.
William HL engaged him to decorate his newly-erected Palace at Loo,
on which he was engaged fifteen months, after which he came a third
time to this country, and died in Marylebone in 1720.
The Duke of Schomberg died in 17 19, when Schomberg House passed
into the possession of his daughter and co-heiress, Frederica, who had
married four years previously the third Earl of Holdernesse, two years
after whose death in 1722, she married Benjamin Mildmay, created
Viscount Harwich and Earl Fitzwalter in 1730.
J propos of this lady a story is told which indicates that she had little
feeling for the memory of her grandfather, the first Duke. His body
ii6 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
was buried in Dublin Cathedral, and Swift, anxious that a monument
should be erected to his memory there, wrote to Lady Holdernesse and
asked her for fifty pounds towards the expenses, but no notice was taken
of his appeal ; whereupon the angry Dean erected a tablet at his own
charge and took occasion, in the inscription, to reflect on the conduct of
Lady Holdernesse ; upon which Dagenfeldt (who had married Lady
Holdernesse's sister Mary), at that time envoy from Prussia to the English
court, complained of Swift's conduct, which brought the latter into
disfavour at court.
Schomberg House is, or rather was — for the west wing that remains
is but a fragment of the building — a very characteristic example of the
architecture of the period ; but who was responsible for its design is,
unfortunately, not recorded. I am not disinclined to think, however,
that Captain Winde, who was responsible for Buckingham House, as well
as for Newcastle House, Lincoln's Inn Fields, may have had a hand
in it.^
Lord Holdernesse died in 1722, and his son apparently succeeded
him in the possession of the place, probably after the death of his mother
the Dowager Lady Holdernesse who, as we have seen, married en second,
noces Earl Fitzwalter, for I find that the mansion was let by Lord
Holdernesse to the Duke of Cumberland — "the Butcher" — in 1760,
when, on the accession of his nephew George HL, he was obliged to vacate
St. James's Palace, and it was then known as Cumberland House, by
which name it is shown in Horwood's map of London, dated 1796. The
Duke probably lived here till his death in 1765, in which year it is known
to have been sold, at the remarkably low figure of ^5000, to John Astley
the portrait-painter, who seems to have been rather indebted to good
fortune than to genius for the success he achieved. He was a pupil of
Hudson, and after this novitiate travelled in Italy ; returning home,
he settled in Dublin, where his handsome face and engaging manners,
quite as much as any talent he may have possessed, enabled him to make
a small fortune. He determined to set up as a fashionable portrait-
painter in London, and on the way thither he became acquainted with
the widow of Sir William Daniel, who was besides an heiress possessed of
considerable estates in Cheshire ; this lady, with her ;^5ooo a year, he
married, and henceforth painted rather for amusement than profit, and
divided his time between a dilettante following of art and the existence
of a beau of the period. The well-known story told of Astley must have
' It is amusing to read in Hare's Walks in London that the house was built by Meinhardt
for the " great Duke of Schomberg." Meinhardt was the Christian name of the third Duke for
whom the house was erected. The ' great Duke ' was the first Duke, killed at the Boyne.
SCHOMBERG HOUSE 117
had its origin in his pre-nuptial days before fortune smiled upon him ;
for it is said that once being one of a company at a country outing, he
for long refused to take off his coat, as his companions had done, but at
last the heat of the sun was too much for him, and he was compelled
to pull off his outer garment, when, lo and behold ! the back of his
shirt was seen to represent a waterfall ; he had wrapped himself,
faute de mieux, in one of his unsold canvases. When Astley pur-
chased Schomberg House he divided it into three portions, reserving for
himself the main building, over the entrance of which he placed a
medallion group of " Painting," which was his own work. On the top
storey he reserved a suite of rooms for his own private use, and on the
roof built a large studio which he termed his " country house." He
died in 1787, and it was during his period of possession that, in 1780, the
Gordon rioters threatened to demolish the building ; simply, one sup-
poses, because of its being a landmark rather than from any particular
antagonism on the part of the rioters to its owner.
In this memorable year Astley left Schomberg House, letting the
portion he had occupied to that notorious quack Dr. Graham, who opened
here what he called his Temple of Health, where he subjected his patients
to the soothing influences of his " Celestial Bed," and where the goddess
of health was personified by a beautiful woman named Prescott. Graham
ornamented the front of Schomberg House with a statue of Hygeia and
other emblematic advertisements, and although he charged two guineas
a head entrance fee to his lecture on health, or perhaps because of the
largeness of the sum, fashionable London crowded to his magnificently
decorated rooms. Horace Walpole was, of course, a visitor, but he de-
tected the empiricism of the worthy Doctor, for he tells Lady Ossory, on
August 23, 1780, that " it Is the most impudent puppet show of imposition
I ever saw, and the mountebank himself the dullest of his profession."
When his absurdities ceased to attract in London, Graham tried them
in various provincial towns, and after many adventures died in 1794,
notwithstanding his assertion that he had discovered the Elixir of Life ! ^
After Graham's departure Richard Cosway occupied the centre of
the house, and here Mrs. Cosway also painted and gave her celebrated
musical parties. From 1770 to 1780, Cosway was living in Berkeley Street,
Piccadilly, and it was here that he first attracted the notice of the Prince of
Wales, whose portrait he so often produced, so that when he took up
his residence at Schomberg House, he was in the heyday of his fame ;
he, however, only remained here five years, removing to Stratford Place
in 1792.
' For an interesting account of Graham see Timbs's Roman:c of Loudon.
ii8 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
The portion of the house that had been occupied by Cosway was,
after the termination of his tenancy, used by the so-called Polygraphic
Society, where " wretched copies of good pictures," according to
J. T. Smith, were exhibited ; later it became the headquarters of Bryan
the picture-dealer ; anon Coxe the once famous auctioneer took it ; and
later still it was the bookshop of the celebrated Tom Payne, the Quaritch
of the day, who came here in 1806, and was succeeded by Messrs. Payne
and Foss ; while, as if to add to its artistic associations, Jervas, the friend of
Pope, and a portrait-painter of some merit, as well as Nathaniel Hone,
who died in 1784, were numbered among former tenants of this portion
of the once noble old house, as was also Robert Bowyer, miniature-painter
to Queen Charlotte, who exhibited at Schomberg House his Historic
Gallery, consisting of pictures and prints illustrating the annals of this
country, which, in 1807, he disposed of by lottery, ParUament having
passed an Act expressly authorising him to do so.
But a pre-eminent painter was to be associated with Schomberg
House, in the person of the great Gainsborough, who rented the west
wing of the mansion from Astley, in 1774, paying ;^3oo a year for it. Here
he lived and painted till his death in 1788, and here were produced some
of those masterpieces which are to-day the glory of British art. Walpole
specifically mentions his executing here " the large landscape in the style
of Rubens, and by far the finest landscape ever painted in England, and
equal to the great masters."
The ten years of Gainsborough's activity here were the most
triumphant of his career. To mention merely the names of the great
and beautiful who trod the stairs of Schomberg House, would be to
recapitulate the titles of the most famous men and women of the day ;
from royalty downwards — and he painted all George HI.'s large family
more than once, and even, as has been said, made Queen Charlotte
look picturesque — every one came here or to Sir Joshua's in Leicester
Square, and not infrequently to both. These two remarkable men
monopolised the art of portrait-painting ; there were other competitors,
but at what an immeasurable distance the picture-galleries of to-day
attest.
Gainsborough once commenced a portrait of Sir Joshua here, but
only one sitting was given before Reynolds had to go to Bath on account
of the slight paralysis that had seized him ; his next visit was to the death-
bed of his great rival, who had several of his unfinished works brought
into the room to show to Sir Joshua, flattering himself that he would live
to finish them. But this was not to be ; and in July 1788 he wrote
and begged Reynolds to pay him a last visit. The scene has become
SCHOMBERG HOUSE 119
historic. " If any little jealousies had subsisted between us," says Sir
Joshua, recounting the scene, " they were forgotten in those moments
of sincerity ; and he turned towards me as one who was engrossed in the
same pursuits, and who deserved his good opinion by being sensible of
his excellence." It was on this notable occasion that Gainsborough,
looking fixedly at his brother artist, uttered those memorable last words :
" We are all going to heaven, and Vandyck is of the company."
The east wing of Schomberg House, as well as the main building,
had its commercial uses, for here, for a time, the business premises of Messrs.
Dyde & Scribe, who were succeeded by Harding much patronised by
George III. and his family, were established.
In 1850, when it was found necessary to enlarge the War Office, in
those days called the Ordnance Office which occupied the sites of the
former residences of the Dukes of York and Buckingham, the east wing
of Schomberg House was pulled down for the purpose and replaced by
one of those so-called classic buildings in which the period delighted.^
Such a piece of vandalism would nowadays hardly be permitted by
public opinion, one likes to think, but in those times it was probably con-
sidered an " improvement " to mutilate a fine building, which in spite
of its internal divisions outwardly preserved its original appearance, and
to erect in its place a heavy and meaningless specimen of architecture.
UXBRIDGE HOUSE
It is not a very far cry from Pall Mall to Burlington Gardens, and
here stands a splendid specimen of later Georgian architecture at its
best. It is true that it has passed from the private uses for which it was
erected, but, notwithstanding this as well as the fact that some additions
have been made to it, it preserves substantially its original appearance, and
may weU take its place among the great houses which alone keep up the
memory of their former stateliness by retaining their essential features
unmutilated.
Uxbridge House, now used as the Western Branch of the Bank of
England, which I here indicate, stands on the site of an earlier residence
known as Queensberry House, which Giacomo Leoni, a Venetian
architect who settled in England where he died in 1746, designed, in
1726, for the second Duke of Queensberry. The site occupies a portion
of that Ten Acres Field, the building development of which was begun
about 1 7 16, and which was part of the property of the Earl of Burlington,
' In later days the War Office occupied till quite recently the whole of Schomberg House.
I20 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
from whose titles Burlington Street and Gardens, and Cork Street are
named.^ Queensberry House appears to have been one of the earliest
residences erected on this spot, and its appearance can be still studied
in Picart's view of it produced at the time of its completion. It was
in the classic style, the front being decorated by six Ionic columns
dividing the windows of the first and second floors, while on the top of
the fa9ade stood six life-size figures. Even Ralph only found fault with
its situation as being " over against a dead wall (that of Burlington House
gardens apparently), and in a lane unworthy of so grand a building."
The critic, remarking that it was in the style of Inigo Jones, takes occasion
to make the observation that " a beautiful imitation is of abundantly
more value than a bad original ; and he that could copy excellencies
so well, could not want a great deal of his own." *
Here the Duke of Queensberry and his celebrated Duchess,' Prior's
" Kitty, Beautiful and Young," lived when in town, and here their protegi
Gay, the poet, passed much of his time, his health and comfort being
attended to by the Duchess with almost maternal solicitude, and his
worldly affairs looked after by the Duke. It was in Queensberry House
that, after an illness of but three days' duration, he died on Decem-
ber 5, 1734, and from here his body was taken to Exeter Change, where
it lay in state, until conveyed on December 23rd, to the Abbey where
it rests beneath the sumptuous monument set up by his patron to his
honour, and carved by the great Rysbraek.
The Duchess died in this house, where she had passed half a century
of her long life. She was as eccentric in old age as she had been beautiful
in her youth ; and an example of her " manner " is given by Walpole in
a well-known anecdote. Horace himself. Lord Lome, and George Selwyn
were at one of her balls here, in 1764, when, finding the dancing-room
cold, the trio retired to an adjoining apartment where there was a fire.
The act did not escape her Grace's notice, who, saying nothing, there
and then sent for a carpenter and had the door taken off its hinges !
Indifferent to public opinion, she never followed new fashions, but con-
tinued to dress in the mode of her early youth ; and when, at St. James's
under the very nose of the King, she solicited subscriptions for Gay's
Polly, the sequel to The Beggar'' s Opera which had given such annoyance
• Burlington Street was called Nowell Street till 1733.
^ Critical Review of Public Buildings, 17S3, p. 195. In Britton and Pugin's Public Buildings
of London, is an elevation and plan of Uxbridge House showing the large music-room
incorporated in the building, which reminds us of the Duke of Queensberry's well-known love
of that art.
' Lady Catherine Hyde, daughter of Henry, Earl of Rochester, married the Duke of
Queensberry in 1720, and died of a surfeit of strawberries, on July 17, 1777.
UXBRIDGE HOUSE 121
to royalty, and was in consequence requested to retire from court, she
wrote George II. probably the most daringly impertinent letter that a
subject ever addressed to a sovereign !
The Duke died a year after his eccentric Duchess, when Queensberry
House passed into the possession of *' old Q." ; some years later, however,
it was purchased by Henry (Bayley) Paget, who was created Earl of
Uxbridge in 1784. For some reason the mansion did not please its new
owner, who commissioned John Vardy to design a new house, which that
architect did with the help of Joseph Bonomi so far as the front was con-
cerned, and the present building was erected during the years 1790-2.
Lord Uxbridge died in 1 81 2, and was succeeded by his son, the well-
known soldier, " the first cavalry officer in the world," as he was called,
who, according to Lord William Pitt Lennox, " in his splendid uniform,
was the beau ideal of a dashing hussar." Lord Uxbridge, who, as is known,
lost a leg at Waterloo, was created Marquis of Anglesey a few weeks after
the battle had been fought, for his services there. He continued to live
at Uxbridge House till his death here on April 29, 1854, sometime after
which event the mansion was sold to the Directors of the Bank of
England, who made some necessary additions to it, but happily pre-
served in the state rooms on the first floor their principal decorative
features, including the beautiful carved marble chimney-pieces.
CAMBRIDGE HOUSE
Cambridge House, Piccadilly, about which I now want to say some-
thing, is not the largest of the many great houses in this thoroughfare ;
it is not so architecturally imposing as No. 105, which Novosielski built
for the notorious Lord Barrymore ; it probably cost but a tithe of what
Hope House, at the south-east corner of Dover Street, with its wonderful
carvings and panellings, must have done ; but it has been the home of a
number of notable men ; and it has a political significance only less
marked, because of lesser duration, than that attached to Devonshire
House or Lansdowne House. Like Barrymore and Hope Houses, it has,
however, for many years now been converted into a club, and in the Naval
and Military, or, as it is commonly termed, the " In " and " Out " Club,
its identity as the famous town residence of Lord Palmerston has been to
some extent merged.
It was originally known as Egremont House, having been the re-
sidence of Charles Wyndham, second Earl Egremont, for whom it was
probably erected during the latter half of the eighteenth century.
Dodsley, who published his Environs of London, in 1761, speaks of
122 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
it as being, at that time, " the last house built in Piccadilly," indicating
that it was then the most westerly mansion at this point ; Dodsley's
further remarks are as substantially true of the place to-day as they were
when he wrote : " It is of stone," he says, " and tho' not much adorned,
is elegant, and well situated for a town house, having a line view over
the Green Park, which would be still more extended if the houses on
each side were set further back." It was erected on the site of one of
the innumerable inns that at one time congregated together in this
neighbourhood ; but the architect's name has not come down to us,
although I have sometimes thought that it might possibly have been
designed by Sir William Chambers, who, in 1759, had published his treatise
on " Civil Architecture," and who may have restrained his prentice hand
to the unpretentious though dignified style that characterises Egremont
House, before experience and success urged him to the more elaborate
work he did at Somerset House.
The political importance of the mansion to some extent commenced
with its first owner, for Lord Egremont, besides being the first Pleni-
potentiary nominated to take part in the proposed Congress of Augsburg,
in 1761, became later in the same year. Secretary of State for the Southern
department, in George Grenville's administration (in which oflBce he
succeeded William Pitt), a post he held till his death on August 21, 1763.
Lord Egremont was a man of great wealth and influence, and the latter
he exerted on behalf of the King's struggle against the oligarchy of the
Whigs ; and with the help of his friends of the Cocoa Tree Club, he seems
to have done yeoman's service to the cause he espoused. On his death,
his son, who succeeded him in the title, continued to reside at Egremont
House. He interested himself rather in agricultural and scientific
matters than politics, and so during the period of thirty years in which
he made Egremont House his town residence, as Petworth was his country
abode, it ceased from being a political centre. Mrs. Delany speaks of the
third Earl as " a pretty man," Horace Walpole termed him a handsome
one, and even Charles Greville calls him a " fine old fellow."
Lord Egremont died in 1837, but as Lord Cholmondeley is known
to have been residing at Egremont House, from 1822 to 1829, it is probable
that he purchased it in the former year. He is remembered as being
Chamberlain to the Prince of Wales, in 1795, and Lord Steward of the
Household from 1812 to 1821. He was created a Marquis in 18 15, and
received the Garter in 1822, the year in which he is first traced to Egremont
House, the name of which he changed to that of Cholmondeley House,
after his own title. He died in 1827, and was succeeded by his son, the
second Marquis, who, after occupying the place for two years, disposed
CAMBRIDGE HOUSE 123
of it to the Duke of Cambridge, who lived here, till his death, which
took place in this house, on July 8, 1850. During the period of his Royal
Highness's occupation the mansion was again renamed, and as Cambridge
House it was henceforth known until it was acquired by the club which
still occupies it. What might have been a tragic event once nearly
happened here, while the Royal Duke was in possession, for it was when
leaving the house, on one occasion, after a visit to the Duke, that Queen
Victoria was assaulted by a madman, though happily without serious con-
sequences.
In the year of the Duke's death, Lord Palmerston took the house,
and here until his death at Brocket Hall in 1865, it was the headquarters
of the Whigs. Five years after he had made Cambridge House his London
residence, he became Prime Minister, which office he held, with one
break when Lord Derby was Premier from 1858-1859, continuously till
his death ; so that the political significance of Cambridge House during
these ten years is particularly marked.
It is a matter of common knowledge that the frequent and splendid
entertainments given here, together with the charm and tact of Lady
Palmerston, did more than can be readily estimated to keep the party
together, and to extend and strengthen the popularity of its leader,
" the frolicsome statesman, the man of the day," as Locker-Lampson
calls him. The memoirs and letters of the period are full of references
to both these aids to the enhancement of " Pam's " glory and reputation,
but notice of Cambridge House is here too slight to permit me
to recapitulate any of them, which, besides, my readers would probably
find unnecessary, so frequent and well-known are they.
On Lord Palmerston's death, his body was carried to the Abbey from
Cambridge House, the procession forming one of the most impressive
of the many pageants that have passed, at one time or another, through
Piccadilly.
After this period of the mansion's prosperity and fame had closed,
there was a suggestion that it should be demolished and a Roman
Catholic cathedral built on its site ; but luckily other counsels pre-
vailed, and although, in its metamorphosis into a club-house, it has lost
something of its original character, it remains, so far as its exterior is
concerned, substantially as it has always been ; ^ and if, as I have heard
it rumoured, the ground landlord at the near expiration of the club's
lease, comes himself to dwell In it, it may probably have a further long
life as one of the lesser private palaces of the West End.
• An addition was made by the club by the formation of a low west wing at right angles to
the main structure.
124 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
MELBOURNE HOUSE, NOW THE ALBANY
Just as Cambridge House has become identified with club life in the
ordinary acceptation of the term, so the great house now known as the
' Albany ' has come to be regarded as a sort of Club Lodging House
for Private Gentlemen of a kind absolutely sui generis. So long, indeed,
has it flourished under these conditions, that not within the memory of
any one, has it been anything else, and just before its conversion to these
uses, it was for a short time the residence of a Royal Duke ; but during
its earlier days it could be properly considered a private palace, and as
such must not be omitted from these pages. Like many another great
mansion it had a precursor in this spot, which in turn was preceded by
three separate houses ; of these the centre one was occupied at one
time by Lady Stanhope, and afterwards by the Countess of Denbigh.^
The Countess Stanhope, daughter of Thomas Pitt, Esq., was the wife of
the first Earl, who died in 172 1, and as she outlived him just two years,
it may probably have been during this period of her widowhood that she
resided here. The Countess of Denbigh was presumably the wife of the
fifth Earl ; she was Dutch by birth, being the daughter of Peter de
Jonge, of Utrecht. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu refers to her some-
what disparagingly in a letter to Lady Mar, and from what she says,
it is not improbable that Lady Denbigh lived separately from her lord ;
in a subsequent letter Lady Mary again mentions her and her doings
thus : " I had almost forgot our dear and amiable cousin Lady Denbigh,
who has blazed out all the winter ; she has brought with her from Paris
cart-loads of riband, surprising fashions, and complexion of the last
edition, which naturally attracts all the she and he fools in London, and
accordingly she is surrounded by a little court of both, and keeps a
Sunday assembly to show she has learned to play at cards on that day."
If I am right in identifying the occupier of the centre house with
this Lady Denbigh, it was in all probability here that she in turn amused
and shocked London.*
The house on the west side was, so early as 1675, the residence of
Sir Thomas Clarges, and was then described as being " near Burlington
House above Piccadilly." This Sir Thomas, who died in 1695 and left
^5000 a year to his son Sir Walter, was the brother-in-law of the Duke
' Wheatley's Round About Piccadilly, to which I am indebted for much of the information
regarding " Albany."
* Without any actual data, I may be wrong ; and the Lady Denbigh who resided here
may have been the widow of the fourth Earl who died in 1717. She was Hester, daughter of
Sir Basil Firebrass, Bt.
MELBOURNE HOUSE 125
of Albemarle, who had in this very year purchased Clarendon House
close by. The Clarges family owned property on the north of Piccadilly,
and Clarges Street perpetuates its name. At one time a lease of it had
been granted to Mr. Neale, who built the Seven Dials and introduced
lotteries into this country ; ^ but he not fulfilling certain stipulations,
Sir Walter Clarges recovered the lease and developed the property him-
self. A later Sir Thomas Clarges, who died in 1759, was the friend of
Swift, and married Barbara, the youngest daughter of John Berkeley,
fourth Lord Fitzhardinge.
In 1 71 5 the house I am speaking of was in the occupation of Sir John
Clarges ; but seven years earlier it had been let for a term to the Venetian
Ambassador, probably Signer Bianchi, who filled that post in 17 10, and
whose coach, " the most monstrous, huge, fine, rich gilt thing," Swift
mentions in one of his letters to Stella. About this time Hatton * calls
the place " a stately new building."
The house next to this on the east side was the residence of the third
Earl of Sunderland. It does not appear when he first came to reside
here, but an advertisement in the Taller confirms his residence here as
early as January 1710. In course of time Lord Sunderland purchased
the other two houses, and joined them to his own, making a splendid,
if not uniformly architectural, mansion for himself. He was the great
bibliophile who collected the famous Sunderland Library, which having
passed to the Marlborough family, was dispersed about a quarter of a
century ago, and in addition to the transformation of three residences into
one, he built a fine room here for the reception of his treasures. Macky,
in 1 7 14, speaks of the " Palace of the Earl of Sunderland where," he says,
"you will see the finest private library in Europe, and which surpasses
many of the public ones " ; while in a book entitled The History of the
Present State of the British Islands, published in 1743,^ is the following
account of Lord Sunderland's House as thus altered and enlarged : " Next
to Burlington House is the Earl of Sunderland's * with a high wall like-
wise before it, which hides it from the street, and tho' it be inferior to
the former in many other respects, yet the library is look'd upon as one
of the completest in England, whether we regard the beauty of the
building, or the books that fill it. This edifice is an hundred and fifty
foot in length, divided into five apartments, having an upper and a
lower range of windows and galleries that go round the whole for the
conveniency of taking down the books. It was collected chiefly by the
' See Evelyn's Diary, October 5, 1694. -' .Wrc View 0/ London.
^ Quoted in Round About Piccadilly.
* He died in 1722, and his son, the fourth Earl, in 1729.
126 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
late Lord Sunderland, who left no place unsearched to replenish it with
the most valuable books, and among the rest here is a greater variety
of editions of the classicks than is to be met with in any other library."
The fifth Earl of Sunderland, brother of the fourth Earl, succeeded
to the Dukedom of Marlborough in 1733, when certain country estates
together with Sunderland House passed to the Hon. James Spencer, a
brother of the new Duke, and the father of the John Spencer who became
first Earl Spencer in 1765.^
Many years later we find the house in the possession of Henry, first
Lord Holland, who, however, sold it, in 1770, to the first Lord Melbourne,
who had been elevated to that title the same year, and was probably
anxious to have a town house suitable to his newly acquired dignity, and a
fitting home for his beautiful wife whom he had married in the previous
year, and of whom. Lady Sarah Lennox, in a letter to Lady Susan
O'Brien, says : " She is liked by everybody high and low and of all denomi-
nations, which I don't wonder at, for she is pleasing, sensible, and
desirous of pleasing, I hear, which must receive admiration."
In order to make the place still more imposing. Lord Melbourne
pulled down the old mansion, and erected the present house from
designs by Sir William Chambers. He seems, however, to have pre-
served the wall facing Piccadilly, for Ralph mentions it as being only
less objectionable than that in front of Burlington House, because it
happened to be smaller ; he also criticises the pediment surmounting the
gateway as " heavy," and the mansion itself he dismisses as deserving
" neither censure nor praise " ; which negative criticism may perhaps,
from such a writer as Ralph, be considered as fairly favourable.
The interior of the new house was elaborately decorated, and we hear
of the ball-room being painted by Cipriani ; while Wheatley and Rebecca
were employed to embellish other apartments.
Wheatley was a young man of about twenty-five when he was
employed on this work, and a little later he is known to have assisted
in painting the ceiling at Lord Melbourne's country seat. Brocket Hall ;
but in later life he confined himself to those delightful genre scenes and
portraits for which he is celebrated.
Rebecca is little known, although Mrs. Papendiek calls him " cele-
brated" in 1790, when he was employed in decorating the border of the
canopy in the throne-room at Windsor, a work which George HL was
constantly watching, we are told. Rebecca seems to have had an extra-
ordinary facility for imitating inanimate objects ; thus he once drew a
full-length portrait of Horn the musician standing in the music -room at
' See Mrs. Dclan^s Autobiography.
MELBOURNE HOUSE 127
Windsor. The King entering, and thinking it was the actual man, bade
him sit down ; another time Horn appeared to be standing in every one's
way, and an equerry asked him to move, when Rebecca darted forward
and removed the iigure he had made ; and still more extraordinary, on
one occasion the King entered a room and saw, as he thought, a live coal
burning on the hearthrug, on which he called for Harris, the major-domo
of Windsor, and exclaimed, " I have so often told you to be more careful
of the fires," whereupon Harris ran forward and picked up the object
and threw it into the fire ; when it was discovered to be another
of Rebecca's wonderful tricks.
But this has carried us far from Melbourne House, which in 1791,
Lord Melbourne exchanged with the Duke of York for York, formerly
Dover House, afterwards known as Melbourne House, in Whitehall. In
the Office of Woods, under date of November 1792, is the following
entry, which refers to the transaction : —
" By an assignment of this date, after mentioning that Lord Mel-
bourne was possessed of a freehold mansion in Piccadilly, lately called
Melbourne, but then called York House, of which possession was given
H.R.H. in December 1791, in pursuance of an agreement for an exchange
of the leasehold house, lately called York House, but then called Mel-
bourne House, and the building lately used as the Lottery House for
the said freehold house, and that a money payment to equalise the ex-
change had been made by H.R.H. , the premises comprised in the leases
above were assigned to Peniston, Viscount Melbourne, for the remainder
of the term for which they were held." ^
The Duke of York, who thus became possessed of the mansion, and
after whom it was called York House, was the second son of George HL
He apparently resided here, until he took a small house in Audley Square,
South Audley Street, during the progress of the building of Stafford
House, which he was renting at the time of his death, in 1827. It
was on the advice, it is said, of his friend the Duchess of Rutland, in
whose house in Arlington Street, by-the-bye, he actually died, that he
determined to erect the immense pile now known as Stafford House,
which he never lived to inhabit. When he vacated what was then York
House, Piccadilly, the mansion was converted into sets of chambers," and
the name " Albany " given it from the Duke's second title. The gardens
were built over to afford further accommodation, and that curious
covered way, giving access to them from Vigo Street, formed.
• Quoted in The Old Palace of Whitehall, by the Rev. Canon Sheppard.
- In the Grace collection is a plan for dividing "Albany," and building additional blocks
at the back. On this plan the house is stated to have been "lately occupied by H.R.H. the
Duke of York."
128 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
In Horwood's Plan, dated 1809, the house is called York House, and
the buildings behind, " The Albany " ; by which it would seem that the
name was not at once applied to the whole place ; in which case the
Duke must have given it up long before he commenced Stafford House.
I need not enter particularly into the history of the house since it
thus passed from its career as a private palace ; but I may remind the
reader that among the notable men who have resided in these chambers
were Byron and Macaulay ; George Canning and Lord Glenelg ; Sir
Robert Smirke and Sir William Cell ; " Monk Lewis " and the much-
travelled Lord Valentia ; Lord Lytton and Henry Luttrell.
The place is to-day as monastic as it was when Lord Macaulay wrote
here his great history, or when Lord Lytton wooed a very substantial
" solitude " in one of its chambers.
HERTFORD HOUSE
Hertford, or as it was originally called, Manchester House, is to-day
known of all London ; it has become almost as much as the National
Gallery, the Mecca of art-lovers. When we think of it, we conjure up
in our minds a fairy palace filled not only with the wonders of French
decorative work, but with a collection of armour, unrivalled in this
country, and an assemblage of pictures to equal which we must go to
Stafford House or Bridgewater House, and which in importance sur-
passes that in the royal palace itself. By a splendid benefaction, that
marvellous aggregation of beautiful objects is now the property of the
country, and may be seen by all and sundry ; but it is probable that
those who gaze and wonder at the masterpieces in a dozen arts assembled
within these walls, give little thought to the history of the great mansion
in which they find such a fitting home. I want here to say a few words
about the house itself and its past owners ; but it is, here, outside my
province to deal with it as the superb museum it has become.
The site of Hertford House and Manchester Square was in the days
of Charles H. known as " Maribone Gardens " ; in the reign of Queen
Anne, however, a project was mooted for forming a " quadrate " on this
spot; but nothing was done till the year 1770, when the subject was
reopened and plans passed in pursuance of such a scheme. One of the
first to obtain a ground lease,^ was George Montagu, fourth Duke of
Manchester, who took practically the whole of the ground on the north
side of what is now Manchester Square, while certain builders, such as
the Adam brothers, Dalrymple, and others took leases of various portions.
' The property is on the Portman estate.
HERTFORD HOUSE 129
In 1776 the Duke commenced the erection of his fine mansion ; and
when the Square was sufficiently advanced to receive a name, that name
was taken from the title of the nobleman whose residence was such a
dominating note in its development.
The death of the Duke synchronised with the completion of the
Square, in 1788, and Manchester House was thereupon purchased by the
Spanish Government for the purpose of an Embassy in London, and in
the Court Guide for 1795, the name of the Marquis del Campo is given
as the then resident Ambassador. In order that there should be a
Roman Catholic place of worship conveniently situated for the use of
the Ambassador and his entourage, a piece of ground was acquired in
what is now Spanish Place, at the north-east corner of the Square, and
Bonomi was employed to design the chapel which was erected there.
In what year the Spanish Government vacated the house is not quite
clear, but as Lord Palmerston, then looking out for a residence in London,
speaks of it in a letter of 1808, as then being available, it was obviously
before that date that the Embassy was removed. Lord Palmerston did
not take the place, for, although he considered it " a nice house," he
also thought it " sadly out of the way."
But it did not remain long untenanted, for soon after, the second
Marquis of Hertford purchased it. He, as every one knows, was a close
friend of the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., and here the First
Gentleman of Europe, as he has been facetiously termed, was a constant
visitor ; but these calls were not always paid to the master of the house ;
it was the Marchioness who so constantly caused " the old yellow
chariot," in which the Prince paid his incognito visits, to rumble over
the stones between Carlton House and Manchester Square. " The
Prince," says Romilly, " does not pass a day without visiting Lady Hert-
ford " ; indeed so notorious did these calls on " the lovely Marchesa,"
as Moore terms her, become, that a scurrilous print once inserted in
its columns the following advertisement : " Lost, between Pall Mall
and Manchester Square, his Royal Highness the Prince Regent." Some-
times these visits were not of quite so intime a nature, and congenial
spirits were invited to meet and amuse the Prince ; never, perhaps, was
one of these occasions so successful as that at which Theodore Hook was
present, when he so delighted the Heir-apparent with his wit and
remarkable feats of improvisation, that at the end of the evening, the
Prince put his hand famiharly on his shoulder and exclaimed, " Mr.
Hook, I must see and hear you again."
On the death of the second Marquis, in 1822, Hertford House, as it
was now called, passed to his successor, the third Marquis, whose wife
I30 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
was that Maria Fagniani, about whose paternity George Selwyn and
" Old Q." were always disagreeing.
This was the peer who has become immortal as the " Lord Steyne "
of Vanity Fair ; but although in his vices he may have to some extent
resembled that redoubtable old rake, he had a saving grace, in his love
and knowledge of art. As we know, he lived much abroad, and in his
wanderings he made magnificent additions to the nucleus of a collection
already gathered together in Hertford House. The moment for the
acquisition of such treasures, especially in Paris, where relics of a departed
regime were often to be picked up for a mere song, was most propitious,
and Hertford House gradually became crowded with rare and beautiful
objects of all sorts. In 1842, the third Marquis died, not here but at
old Dorchester House in Park Lane, and his son the fourth Marquis
threw himself with still greater ardour into the work of collecting pictures
and furniture and bric-d-brac. His agents scoured Europe ; no amount
of trouble was spared, no sum of money was regarded, if some fine canvas,
or rare piece of porcelain or furniture, was to be had. Opposition seemed
hopeless against a man whose determination to secure a treasure was
only equalled by the wealth that enabled him to do it. For nearly
thirty years he dominated the sale-rooms of every capital of Europe, and
in these his reputation was so firmly established that adversaries ceased
to contend in hopeless struggles, and in consequence there is no doubt
that he secured bargains which he might never otherwise have done.
He was the Napoleon of collectors, but unlike Napoleon, directly the
victory was won, he apparently ceased to care for the spoils, and his
houses in London — Hertford House, Manchester Square ; Hertford
House (now the Isthmian Club), Piccadilly; and St. Dunstan's Lodge,
Regent's Park, where he hung that wonderful clock from St. Dunstan's
Church which he had cried for as a child and secured as a man — were
crowded with his innumerable purchases ; while he in his beloved retire-
ment in Paris at his apartments near the Rue Lafitte, or in his splendid
toy-house. Bagatelle, in the Bois de Boulogne, issued his mandates to
breathless agents, or received the innumerable dealers who brought him
only of their best. His life was like a realisation of one of Balzac's
extravagant dreams ; had the great writer possessed the means he might
have been just such a collector ; as it was, the author of Le Cousin Pons,
scribbled on his bare walls the names of the masterpieces he never
obtained, while Lord Hertford at Bagatelle hung up Reynolds's " Mrs.
Robinson " by his bedstead, and dressed by the light of Greuze's " Sophie
Arnould."
Lord Hertford died unmarried, in 1870, and left all his personal
HERTFORD HOUSE 131
wealth and unentailed property to his devoted friend and lieutenant,
Mr. (afterwards Sir Richard) Wallace. One of the first things the legatee
did was to save that portion of the marvellous collection which was
stored in Paris, from the hands of the vandals of the Commune, by sending
it off to England, although he himself, with a splendid heroism, remained
in Paris and there earned by self-sacrifice and generosity, that name for
philanthropy by which, as " Monsieur Richard," he was affectionately
known.
For a time the Wallace Collection, as the accumulations of the two
Marquises and Sir Richard himself, who was chiefly responsible for the
armour, were now called, was exhibited in the Bethnal Green Museum,
but by 1875, vast alterations and additions had been made to Hertford
House with a view to accommodating the whole en masse.
Some years before his death, Sir Richard had made overtures to the
Government with a view to leaving the whole of his artistic possessions
to the country ; the offer was met in the characteristic fashion of English
Governments (Mr. Standish and Sir Henry Tate were treated in a very
similar manner), when such magnificent offers have been made to them,
and trivial and vexatious conditions were attached to acceptance, as if it
was an act of condescension and kindness to accept what no Government
could have procured for itself. A less public-spirited man than Sir Richard
would have left the collection to a nation which could better have
appreciated such a gift, as Mr. Standish did, and as it is a wonder Sir
Henry Tate did not ; but in spite of all the haggling of Treasury
officials, better counsels prevailed, and on Lady Wallace's death it was
found that Sir Richard had empowered her to bequeath the Wallace
Collection to the country.
I need not insist on its value ; none could probably say what that
is ; we talk of millions, but no number of millions could buy the con-
tents of Hertford House ; it cannot be compared, because certainly in
this country there is nothing comparable to it. But its importance can
be guessed at, for it exactly fills that lacuna in our national possessions
which was always hitherto a matter of regret. The examples of French
art in the National Gallery are insignificant in number, and often poor
in quality ; our public collection of French furniture and bric-a-brac was
practically confined to the splendid but, in comparison with that at
Hertford House, small, Jones collection ; we had no representative assem-
blage of armour except that in the Tower ; and the finest Sevres china
is in royal palaces or private houses ; in Hertford House, we have all
these gaps not only filled, but filled in such a way as to be the envy and
despair of other countries.
132 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
NEWCASTLE HOUSE
Before Henry Jermyn commenced the development of his property
between Piccadilly and Pall Mall of which St. James's Square formed
the key-stone, and thus inaugurated the establishment of the West End as
a fashionable dwelling-place, Lincoln's Inn Fields was one of the favourite
residential spots in London ; and even for many years after much of
the fashion of the day had emigrated towards the west, there were many
noble families to be found within it ; while it is not improbable that had
Inigo Jones's great plan of rebuilding the whole square been carried into
effect, the exodus from this quarter might have been still longer retarded.
As it is, such important people as the Earls of Bristol, Sandwich, and
Lindsay ; the Dowager-Countess of Middlesex, and the " proud " Duke
of Somerset, and Sir Richard and Lady Fanshawe, are numbered among
its past inhabitants ; and for a time it was the recognised home of
many of the Lord Chancellors, among whom Lord Cowper, and Simon,
Lord Harcourt, Lords Northington and Macclesfield, may be named ;
while such men as Lords Ashburton, Grantley, and Kenyon, and Sir
William Blackstone, anticipated by their residence here the legal aspect
which has since almost entirely overtaken " the Fields." Many of the
fine old houses that were once the private residences of noble owners
still survive, in some cases mutilated as to their exteriors, and in practi-
cally all, divided and subdivided within beyond all knowledge.
Of these the largest and, in many respects the most important, is the
great house at the north-west corner, now numbered 66, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, but in the days of its earlier prosperity known first as Powis,
and afterwards as Newcastle house.
It was erected in 1686, by William Herbert, created Earl of Powis
in 1674, who was raised to the marquisite the year after the house was
built. The architect employed was that Captain William Winde, a pupil
of Balthazar Gerbier, who addressed one of the numerous dedications of
his Counsel and Advice to all Builders,^ to his scholar. The Herbert
family possessed an earlier house on the same site, which was burnt to
the ground in 1684, the inmates barely escaping with their lives ; and the
private Act of Parliament for the erection of the new house is entitled
" An Act for rebuilding the Earl of Powis's House in Lincoln's Inn
Fields, lately demolished by fire." Luttrell thus refers to the destruction
of the mansion, on November 26th : " About five in the morning broke
out a fire in the house of the Earl of Powis in Great Lincoln's Inn Fields,
' Published in London in 1663.
NEWCASTLE HOUSE 133
which in a very Uttle time consumed that house, the family hardly saving
themselves from being burnt, but lost all their things."
Lord Powis enjoyed his new possession but a short time, for on the
accession of William III. it was forfeited to the Crown, its master having
been one of the few faithful adherents of James II., and one of those
who followed him into exile.'
On his departure from England, Lord Powis left his mansion exposed
to the attacks of the anti-popery mobs which scoured the streets
seeking what Roman Catholic property they might destroy. On the
llth December 1688, they gutted the popish chapel in Lincoln's Inn
Fields, " pulling down all the wainscot, pictures, books, &c.," says
Luttrell ; and on the following night, the same authority tells us, " they
would have plundered and demolished the houses of several papists, as
Lord Powys, &c., if they had not been prevented by the train'd bands
which were out," although in the English Courant for the same month, a
somewhat different reason is given to account for the preservation of
the mansion, thus : " Then they (the mob) went to the Lord Powis'
great house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, wherein was a guard, and a bill upon
the door — ' This house is appointed for the Lord Delamere's quarters,' and
some of the company crying, ' Let it alone, the Lord Powis was against
the Bishops going to the Tower,' they offered no violence to it." ^
Having passed by forfeiture to the Crown, Powis House was appointed
as a residence for the Lord Chancellor during his term of office, and in
this capacity. Lord Somers occupied it in February 1697, and remained
here tiH September 1700. In the previous May he " offered Powis House
to the Lord Keeper, who accepted thereof, and designs to live there and
hear cases," ^ and on September 30th he sent the key of the mansion to
the Lord Keeper, who moved into it on the following 3rd of October.
The Lord Keeper here mentioned was Sir Nathan Wright, and
Pennant states that there was a report that the Government contem-
plated purchasing Powis House and settling it as an official residence on
the Keeper of the Great Seal for the time being ; this scheme was not,
however, carried out, and John Holies, first Duke of Newcastle of the
Holies branch, became its owner in May 1705, giving to the second
Lord Powis, who had succeeded his father, ;£7000 for the place. At
this time Sir Nathan Wright was still in possession, but arrangements
had evidently been made for his giving it up, as we know that the Duke
bought it for his own use, and Luttrell further informs us that he
" designs to keep the office of the privy seal," ^ here as well.
' He died at St. Gennains, in 1696. ^ Quoted in London Past and Present.
' Narcissus Luttrell's Diary. ' Diary., May 8, 1705.
134 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
The Duke's possession of the house, which was now known as New-
castle House, was a comparatively short one, for he died in 171 1, and as
he left no direct heir, the title, and estates including Newcastle House,
passed to his nephew, Thomas Pelham-HoUes, son of Thomas, first Lord
Pelham, who married six years after his accession to the title, Lady
Henrietta, daughter of Francis, second Earl of Godolphin.
This Duke, besides holding a number of important offices under
George I., was First Lord of the Treasury as well as Lord Privy Seal,
under his successor, and is a well-known figure in the political annals of
these two reigns, and at Newcastle House, which about this time De
Saussure speaks of as particularly magnificent, he was wont to receive the
crowds of friends and dependants who paid their court to him. " His
levees were his pleasure and his triumph," writes an authority, " he loved
to have them crowded, and consequently they were so. There he gener-
ally made people of business wait two or three hours in the ante-chamber,
while he trifled away that time with some insignificant favourite in his
closet. When at last he came into his levee-room, he accosted, hugged,
embraced, and promised everybody, with a seeming cordiality, but at the
same time with an illiberal and degrading familiarity."
The character of this extraordinary man has been often drawn.
Walpole and Smollett and Macaulay have all handed down portraits
which essentially resemble one another, of this eccentric, exceedingly
ignorant, but at the same time, in some things, curiously astute and
successful nobleman. " All that the art of the satirist does for other
men, nature had done for him. . . . He was a living, moving, talking
caricature. His gait was a shuffling trot ; his utterance a rapid stutter ;
he was always in a hurry ; he was never in time ; he abounded in fulsome
caresses and in hysterical tears. . . . He was eaten up by ambition. . . .
He was greedy after power with a greediness all his own. . . . All the able
men of his time ridiculed him as a dunce, a driveller, a child who never
knew his own mind for an hour together ; and he overreached them all
round." This is a sort of patchwork of Macaulay's estimate, and if we
distrust Macaulay's partiality on occasion, we must remember that in this
instance his verdict is confirmed by the judgments of contemporaries.
In 1 71 8, the year in which the Duke was made a Knight of the
Garter, a large crowd made a bonfire before Newcastle House, and flung
burning faggots at the windows, " whereupon," we are told, " several
gentlemen and the Duke's servants came out with drawn swords, and
wounded several of the mob."
Another nuisance to his Grace and his household were the perpetual
visits of the " long Sir Thomas Robinson," on whom Lord Chester-
NEWCASTLE HOUSE 135
field made a well-known epigram, and who was continually calling at
Newcastle House, with the hope of seeing its master. When this was
denied him, he always desired to be allowed to go into the Hall and look
at the clock, or play with the pet monkey that was kept there ; hoping
by such methods to intercept the Duke. At length the servants, grown
tired of his importunities, resolved to put an end to his visits, so when
next time Sir Thomas appeared and asked for the Duke, he received the
following pregnant reply : " Sir, his Grace has gone out, the clock has
stopped, and the monkey is dead."
This story is to be found in that storehouse of amusing tales,
The Century of Anecdote, by Timbs, who took it from Hawkins's Life of
Johnson ; in the same book Timbs tells how it was at Newcastle House
that the old custom of giving vails (we now call them tips) to servants
received its death-blow. It was then customary for the servants to wait
in the Hall and to receive gratuities from departing guests. On one
such occasion. Sir Timothy Waldo, on his way from the ducal table,
gave the cook five shillings, who immediately returned it, saying, " Sir,
I do not take silver." " Don't you, indeed ? " replied Sir Timothy,
pocketing the crown ; " and I don't give gold."
The Duke of Newcastle died in 1768, when the title passed to Henry
Pelham-Clinton, who succeeded as second Duke, but there is no evidence
that he occupied Newcastle House, which by this time had become some-
what demode. During the early years of the nineteenth century it was
certainly unoccupied ; and its career as a private palace was for ever over.
In 1827, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge bought the
freehold, and was established here for just fifty years, when it removed
to its new premises in Northumberland Avenue. About 1879, Newcastle
House was divided, one half being occupied by Messrs. Farrer, and the
other by Messrs. Ingram, Harrison & Co. ; more recently, on the
lamentable failure of the latter firm, the north portion of the house was
left unoccupied ; but a year or so ago, Messrs. Farrer acquired it, and
once again, under their cegis., the old house, although necessarily much
divided inside, has regained its former outward appearance of a single
mansion.
As may be seen in old prints of the residence, the covered archway
in Great Queen Street, was formerly within the courtyard of the house,
which enabled the latter to be reached from the offices at the back of
the building, without the necessity of passing through the Hall. The
stables belonging to Newcastle House were on the opposite side of Great
Queen Street ; and there was once a gateway into that thoroughfare
from the mansion itself.
CHAPTER V
WHITEHALL HOUSES
CONSIDERING its extent, Whitehall is to-day not very
largely associated with private residences ; true, Montagu
House stands there, but it is the last of the great palaces
of London to do so, and now that Northumberland House
is no more, is the most easterly of any of them, although, curiously
enough, in date of building it is one of the most modern ; the fine
houses in Richmond Terrace still remain, but their number may be
counted on one hand, while those comprising Whitehall Gardens are
nearly all occupied by Government offices, and those in Whitehall Place
are consecrated to professional uses. Indeed the dominant note in this
famous thoroughfare is that of officialdom ; stately buildings are to be
seen on all sides ; the Admiralty and the Home Office ; the immense
War Office and the hardly less extensive Local Government Board
buildings ; but of the private palaces that once congregated together
at this spot, only one, Gwydyr House, remains, and that has been
converted to alien uses.
This exodus of private owners seems at first rather curious, but the
reason for it is easily explained. Nearly all the great houses that formerly
stood here had their origin in the Palace which extended from the
present Horse Guards Avenue on the north to Richmond Terrace on the
south, and embraced the area from the river bank to where the Treasury
Buildings now stand on the west.^ All this ground was, of course. Crown
property, and after the great fire at the Palace and the subsequent deser-
tion of it for St. James's and Buckingham House, leases were granted
to several people who erected fine houses on the various sites allotted
them ; in the course of time these leases fell in, and the tendency to
reside in other quarters such as Mayfair particularly, coupled perhaps
with the heavy terms required for the renewal of leases, where any dis-
' A comparison of the plan of Whitehall, dated 1680, with a modern ordnance survey map,
will show the extent of the old palace buildings, and the relative position of some of the
houses referred to in this chapter; while a later coloured drawing, dated 1816, in the Grace
collection, shows the position of those that survived at that time. I have endeavoured to
indicate in the text these various positions, as lucidly as I could.
136
*
<
I
k
!l
RICHMOND HOUSE 137
position was shown to renew at all, caused many tenants to give up their
residences here ; some of which houses were eventually demolished to
make way for the great ofhcial buildings since erected, while others
were converted into Government offices and gradually came, by altera-
tion and rebuilding, to lose all semblance of the private character which
once was theirs.
As I deal with these fine houses in turn we shall see how in each
individual instance this was the case, and when we note how splendid
some of them were, we shall have much food for reflection as to the
future of spme equally fine houses in our own day, which seem built on
the rocks of substantiality, but may have no more lasting career than
the great mansions of Whitehall which have for ever passed away.
RICHMOND HOUSE
The first of these private houses which it will be convenient to
mention was Richmond House, which occupied a position at the river
end of what is now Richmond Terrace, thus named in consequence. In
the 1680 plan it is styled " the Duke of Richmond's," it having been at
one time in the possession of the Duchess of Portsmouth, whose son by
Charles II. was created Duke of Richmond in 1675. When the great
fire at the Palace occurred in 1 691, it is said by Evelyn to have begun
"at the apartments of the late Duchess of Portsmouth, which had been
pulled down and rebuilt no less than three times to please her," while
Bramston notes that these " lodgings " were " at the end of the Long
Gallery " ; from this it is difficult to say whether Richmond House is
indicated or whether the " lodgings " refer to other apartments in the
Palace belonging to the Duchess. I think it is probable that the house
itself is not meant, because, in 1709, we find the first Duke petitioning
for a grant to be allowed to " repair and build a house," but that if this
could not be granted, he states his willingness to be content " with that
house that was the Duchess of Richmond's." By this last expression is
proved that Richmond House must have at one time been occupied by
the widow of the third Duke of Richmond (of the Stuart line), who
died in 1702, as in 1709, there was no other Duchess of Richmond
recently dead.
Two years later, the lease having been granted, the Duke erected
the new mansion, probably more or less on the site of the old house.
Some twenty years later, we find the second Duke of Richmond applying
for a renewal of the lease together with a grant of a new one of some
138 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
vacant ground which lay between his house and the river, and is now,
of course, covered by the Embankment, with the result that he obtained
a further term of thirty years expiring in 1763. Not content with this,
however, six years later he applied for a lease of houses then occupied
by Lord Middleton and Sir PhiUp Meadows, which were reported to
be " old and ruinous," whereupon a fresh lease was granted of these
premises, apparently cancelling the former ones of 1709 and 1732, of the
whole property for fifty years.
It would appear that the second Duke rebuilt the house from the
designs of Lord Burlington. Walpole in recording this fact states that
the mansion was ill contrived and inconvenient ; it not improbably
partook of the same qualities as the noble architect's erection for Marshal
Wade in Burlington Gardens, in sacrificing internal comfort to an effec-
tive exterior.
It was under the second Duke that those entertainments so long
associated with Richmond House, were first inaugurated. Walpole,
writing to Mann on May 17, 1749, thus describes one of them : "We
have not yet done diverting ourselves : the night before last the Duke
of Richmond gave a firework ; a codical to the peace. He bought the
rockets and wheels that remained in the Pavilion which miscarried, and
took the pretence of the Duke of Modena being here to give a charming
entertainment. The garden lies with a slope down to the Thames, on
which were lighters, from whence were thrown up, after a concert of
water-music, a great number of rockets. Then from boats on every side
were discharged water-rockets and fires of that kind ; and then the wheels
which were ranged along the rails of the terrace were played off ; and
the whole concluded with the illumination of a pavilion on the top of
the slope of two pyramids on each side, and of the whole length of the
balustrade to the water. You can't conceive a prettier sight ; the gardens
filled with everybody of fashion, the Duke, the Duke of Modena, and
the two black Princes. The King and Princess Emily were in their
barge under the terrace, the river was covered with boats, and the
shores and adjacent houses with crowds. The Duke of Modena played
afterwards at brag, and there was a fine supper for him and the foreigners,
of whom there are numbers here." ^
The second Duke of Richmond died in 1750, whereupon his widow,
daughter and heiress of William, Earl Cadogan, applied for a fresh lease
' Walpole's Letters to Mann, vol. ii. pp. 381-3S2. There is extant a curious engraving
entitled "View of the Fireworkes and Illuminations of the Duke of Richmond's, at Whitehall,
and on the Thames, of May 15, 1 749," published in the following year. Madame de Bocage, in
her Letters on England, &^c., speaks of entertainments at Richmond House, and of the card
parties which used to be held in the gallery of the mansion.
RICHMOND HOUSE 139
of the mansion and grounds, which being obtained two years afterwards,
became, in consequence of the death of the Duchess in 1751, vested
in the third Duke, the well-known opponent of Chatham, and to whom
the great Pitt was replying in the House of Lords when he fell senseless
to the ground. In 1 781, as if there were to be no end to these applica-
tions, the Duke petitioned for yet another lease, and having obtained it, set
about largely altering and improving the mansion, and reclaiming much
of the then muddy foreshore of the river ; while at the same time the
area of the property was increased by a grant of leases of two adjoining
houses with the ground attached to them which had once formed part
of the Privy garden.
It would appear that his Grace allowed these houses to stand, and
only probably wanted a lease of them to prevent inconvenient neighbours,
for eight years later one of them was occupied by Lord George Lennox,
and the other by Colonel Lennox, who in this very year fought the
famous duel with the Duke of York, about which the diarists of the day
have so much to say.^
The last of the many applications for fresh leases was made by the
Duke in 1791, when he obtained a renewal for fifty years.
The festivities which had characterised the second Duke's tenure of
Richmond House were kept up during his successor's long life Seven
years after his accession to the title the latter married Lady Mary Bruce,
an alliance that gave Walpole much satisfaction. " The Duke of Rich-
mond," he writes, to Mann on March 17, 1757, "has made two Balls
on his approaching wedding," these entertainments taking place at Rich-
mond House. Later, the Duke having purchased the adjacent house,
fitted up a small theatre in it, " where," says Walpole, " two winter's,
plays were performed by people of quality." Peter Pindar refers to these
theatrical doings, in the following quatrain addressed to the King :
" So much with saving wisdom are you taken,
Drury and Covent Garden seem forsaken.
Since cost attendeth those theatric borders,
Content you go to Richmond House with orders,"
and in a note to this passage he says, " Here is a pretty little nut-shell of
a Theatre fitted up for the convenience of ladies and gentlemen of quality
who wish to expose themselves."
This was the period in which private theatricals seem to have first
sprung into favour among people of fashion ; Lady Ossory had a theatre
fitted up at Ampthill ; the Duchess of Marlborough followed with a
' See, too, Timbs's Romance of London, vol. i. p. 231, for an account of this incident.
I40 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
more splendid one at Blenheim ; while Lord Barrymore's excursions into
the Thespian realms, and the playhouse he erected at Wargrave, are
matters of notoriety ; but of all these, the Duke of Richmond's company
seems to have been the best, as his theatre in Whitehall was the most
lavishly appointed. The amateur " season " began in April and May,
and after people had left town was discontinued, to be resumed in the
winter. The first play produced here was " The Way to Keep Him,"
and at first the number of the audience was limited to eighty,' although
on one occasion there were no fewer than one hundred and twenty-six.
On April i6, 1787, the first performance took place, and among the
brilliant audience might have been seen Sir Joshua Reynolds. The
dramatis fersonce included Lord Derby, Sir Harry Englefield, Major
Arabin, and Mr. Edgecumbe ; while Mrs. Damer, Mrs. Bruce, Mrs. Hobart,
and Miss Campbell sustained the female parts. The King and Queen
were present at the last representation, and Walpole tells us that the
Duke of Richmond officiated as Master of the Ceremonies, and " on
the conclusion of the play conducted his guests to a most elegant
supper and dessert, where the glass and song went round till past four
in the morning " ; no wonder the gossiping letter-writer supposes that
" the Richmond Theatre will take root." ^ In the winter a play called
" The Wonder " was produced, when Lord Henry Fitzgerald acted so
remarkably that Walpole calls him " a prodigy, a perfection," and goes
so far as to call Garrick " a monkey " compared to him, complacently
adding the dictum that " when people of quality can act, they must act
their own parts much better than others can mimic them," a theory
not agreed to by a writer in the Town and Country Magazine who criti-
cised the actors so unmercifully that Walpole imagined him to be some
envious professional actor.
During his long life the Duke of Richmond was notable for lavish enter-
tainments, but in addition to these and his well-known political activity,
he occupied himself with more lasting interests, and at Richmond House,
he formed a splendid collection of casts from the antique ; and not only
this, but he invited artists to go and study in the gallery he had formed,
and a regular school of design was opened here on March 6, 1758,
being the first for this particular branch of artistic endeavour to be
inaugurated in this country. Silver medals were, by the Duke's munifi-
cence, offered as prizes, and such men as Wilton and Cipriani were enrolled
amongst the instructors who attended in the gallery in which had been
' See letters from -Storer to Eden, in the Auckland Correspondence^ referring to the
Richmond House theatricals.
^ See Life of Reynolds, by LesHe and Taylor, &c.
RICHMOND HOUSE 141
placed " every apparatus and conveniency that could be required In
such a place of study." ^ Here were gathered together no less than
twenty-one statues, four or five groups, and a number of antique busts ;
several bassi relievi, with casts from the Trajan column, and other works.
By this noble munificence the third Duke of Richmond properly takes
his place among the most considerable of English art-patrons.
This gallery, which was not destroyed in the fire which occurred here
in 1 791, formed the subject of a sketch by an artist named Parry,
which Edwards in his Anecdotes mentions particularly as being the only
representation of the place in existence.
Like so many schemes of private enterprise, that of the Duke laid itself
open to criticism ; and on one occasion, as he was obliged to be absent
abroad with his regiment, the medals usually distributed at Christmas
were not allotted, whereupon the students posted up on the door of the
gallery the following notice : " The Right Honourable the Duke of Rich-
mond, being obliged to join his regiment abroad, will pay the premiums
as soon as he comes home " ; and when the Duke did return, he found
to his annoyance another notice apologising for his poverty and expressing
his regret at having offered premiums at all.^ This so enraged him, that
he shut up the gallery and transferred its contents to the Society of
Artists which had been started in 1765. Later, some of the casts became
the property of the Royal Academy, and may still probably be in use
in the school there.
The Duke not only did so much for the encouragement of art, but
he also sat to Reynolds (in October 1758), and patronised Romney by
inducing the great Burke to give sittings to the rising man, somewhat,
it is supposed, to Sir Joshua's chagrin.
The disastrous fire at Richmond House, referred to above, almost
gutted the mansion which had been noted not only for its remarkable col-
lection of antique statues, but for its other beautiful and costly contents.
The house, however, was rebuilt from the designs of Wyatt, at which
time the two separate residences referred to before were incorporated in
the new erection.
The fifth Duke, who was aide-de-camp to Wellington, in the Peninsula,
did not apparently appreciate the place, for the year after his accession
to the title, viz. in 1820, he sold his interest to the Crown, which gave
him ^4300 for the twenty-one unexpired years of his lease. Three years
later the mansion and other buildings appertaining to it were pulled
down, and in the following year Richmond Terrace was built on its site.
That Richmond House must have been a building, not only of
■ Taylor's Fi/ii: Arfs in England. ' Leslie and Taylor's Life of Reynolds.
142 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
importance but also of architectural merit, is evidenced by the fact that
even the critical Ralph speaks well of it. It has, he says " greatly the
advantage of its neighbour (old Montagu House) ; there is something
of manner as well as of simplicity in this ; it satisfies the eye and answers
in the prospect ; and yet," he adds, " even here the entrance is intoler-
able not only because 'tis bad in itself, but because it hides all the lower
part of the house." ^
PEMBROKE HOUSE
Another important mansion in Whitehall was Pembroke House, which
was also at a later date known as Harrington House, and which is now
represented by No. 7 Whitehall Gardens.
In 1 717, the Crown granted the piece of waste land on which it after-
wards stood to Henry, Lord Herbert, the eldest son of the eighth Earl
of Pembroke, and the " Curio " of Pope's Moral Essays, where his taste
for " Statues, dirty gods and coins," is referred to. At that time the
site was, according to the official report, " almost covered with heaps of
rubbish, part of the ruins of the Palace."
Some years after Lord Herbert had obtained this grant, he proceeded
to erect a mansion on the ground acquired, the architect being Colin
Campbell, who gives an elevation and ground plan of the building in
his Vitruvius Britannicus } Ralph remarks that at one time the Earl's
house " seemed at least to be pretty, and wanted but little of being
elegant ; but now his lordship has thought proper to alter it in such
a manner, that it would be hardly known by either of these epithets ;
to hide the whole front of a house for the sake of the offices is certainly
something of a mistake." With its stabling and outbuildings it seems,
as Canon Sheppard points out, to have covered more ground than had
been leased to Lord Herbert ; no doubt in those easygoing times, so
far as boundaries at least were concerned, a few square yards more or
less were not considered to make much difference, and were appropriated
with impunity !
It is probable that a thirty-one years' lease had been obtained, as this
seems to have been about the usual term granted ; and, in 1728, we find
Lord Herbert applying for, and obtaining two years later, a new fifty
years' lease. A few years later still, there arose a quarrel between Lord
• Critical Review of Buildings in London.
^ In the Grace collection is also a ground plan of the mansion, which, according to Mr.
Blomfield, was designed in 1724.
PEMBROKE HOUSE 143
Herbert and Lady Portland who occupied certain houses where " the three
most northern " residences in Whitehall Gardens now stand, as to the
exclusive enjoyment of the Terrace belonging to the old Palace, the use of
which the Countess had arrogated to herself. The matter^ does not par-
ticularly concern us here, except inasmuch as in one of his rejoinders to
Lady Portland's counter-complaints, Lord Pembroke, as he had become,
having succeeded his father in the title, in 1733, incidentally mentions that
he had laid out no less than ;^8ooo on the mansion he had erected, which
shows that it was even at that time a place of some importance.
In 1744, Lord Pembroke appHes for a fresh lease, and, I suppose,
having in view his former recriminations with Lady Portland on the
question of the use of the Terrace, he desired that in the new lease
should be included " the portion of Queen Mary's Terras which was
used for pleasure and ornament to the said Queen's lodgings, which stood
where your memorialist's house stands." A fresh lease for fifty years
was granted, but the petition had apparently opened the eyes of the
authorities to Lord Pembroke's encroachments, for the official report
notices the fact that a " Portall " to the courtyard of Pembroke House
was standing on ground not included in the former lease ; however, the
easygoing authorities let the matter pass.
Lord Pembroke died in 175 1, and five years after that event, his son
and successor, the tenth Earl, whom Walpole calls " a fine boy," and
who married the second daughter of Charles, Duke of Marlborough,
demolished the old house which had become ruinous, and erected a still
more imposing residence on its site. A ground plan of this house (dated
1797), preserved at the Board of Works, shows not only that the mansion
was of considerable extent, but also that the stables and outbuildings,
and particularly a large riding-school, which had been erected on the
site of a portion of the Terrace, covered a large area. In consequence
of this fresh outlay a new lease was applied for, and granted in 1757.^
The plan just referred to was prepared when the eleventh Earl of
Pembroke, who had succeeded his father in 1794, applied for still another
lease, in which application he states that the sum of ^22,000 had been
expended on the rebuilding of the mansion forty years previously, and
that it was then (in 1797) in " substantial and complete repair."
Six years later a renewed lease for sixty-three years was granted, and
apparently Lord Pembroke continued to use the mansion as his London
residence till his death in 1827.
' It is dealt with fully in Canon Sheppard's Royal Palace of Whitehall.
' In the Grace collection is an elevation of "the Rt. Hon. Lord Herbert, his house in
Whitehall," dated 1761.
144 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
A few years later, however, the twelfth Earl granted a twenty-one
years' lease of the property to the fourth Earl of Harrington, who, as
Lord Petersham, had been the famous dandy of the Regency, and had
married in 183 1, Miss Maria Foote the actress. Lord Harrington seems
to have been renting the mansion previously to the year in which he
was married, until he had arranged for this lease, five years after
obtaining which he made some additions to the residence and changed
its name to Harrington House. Lord Albemarle in his Fifty Tears of
my Life speaks of the theatricals at Harrington House, which had been
inaugurated by the Duchesses of Bedford and Leinster and Lady Caroline
Sandford, for the amusement of their father, the third Earl of Harrington,
" whose eyes and infirmities prevented him from stirring abroad." As
the third Earl died in 1829, it would seem that these displays first took
place at the earlier town residence of the family in the precincts of St.
James's Palace, but they were probably continued at Harrington House,
Whitehall, especially as the reigning Countess's former career peculiarly
fitted her for presiding over such entertainments. Among those who
figured in them were, besides Lord Albemarle himself then the Hon.
George Keppel, the Duchess of Leinster and Lady Caroline Sandford ;
Mrs. Leicester Stanhope, afterwards fifth Countess of Harrington,
and the Hon. Georgina Elphinstone, later Lady William Godolphin
Osborne.
Lord Harrington died in 1851, whereupon, although eight years of
his term had yet to expire, the Crown took over the house for use as
the office of the Inclosure and Tithe Commissioners, when it seems to
have been known again as Pembroke House ; at least so it is termed in
a letter of 1855, in which year a portion of it was used by the War Office,
which continued here for some four years.
Its later history, as part of Government offices,^ hardly concerns us
here ; but it is interesting to know that among the contents of the
mansion when it was occupied by the Herbert family, were certain pic-
tures which more recently hung in Herbert House, Belgrave Square,
when that mansion was the residence of Lady Herbert of Lea.
GWYDYR HOUSE
GwYDYR House is practically the only one of the former great private
residences in Whitehall which to-day preserves unaltered its former out-
ward appearance ; it is besides the best known to " the man in the
' It is now occupied by the Board of Trade.
GWYDYR HOUSE 145
street," for it occupies a prominent position here, which the proximity
of newer and more pretentious buildings only helps to accentuate.
It owes its existence to Sir Peter Burrell, created in 1796, Lord
Gwydyr, and who is known also as the husband of Mrs. Burrell, one of
the few untitled Patronesses of Almack's, and a person of very great im-
portance in the fashionable annals of her day.
In 1769, Sir Peter Burrell, who had been created a Baronet three
years earlier, and was to be made a peer twenty-seven years later, held
the office of Surveyor-General of Land Revenue, and being concerned
for the safety of various books and documents connected with his office,
applied for the grant " of a small piece of void and useless ground ad-
joining to the Lamplighters' Office in Whitehall ... on which a house
might be erected."
In consequence of this application, a lease was granted in the following
year. Finding, however, that the site granted him was not sufficient for
his purpose. Sir Peter asked for an additional grant of an adjoining piece
of ground to the north and also desired that the new lease should include
the former site as well ; aU of which he obtained at the end of 1771.
In the following year Gwydyr House was begun,^ and when com-
pleted is stated to have cost some ^6000, while it would seem that it
became Sir Peter's private residence as well as his official headquarters,
for, in 1802, the second Lord Gwydyr applied for a new lease of the
residence, which was granted for a term to expire in 1871.
Subsequently the Baroness Willoughby d'Eresby who had, as Lady
Elizabeth Burrell, wife of Mr. Burrell, Sir Peter's son, succeeded to that
famous title through the sudden death of her brother the Duke of
Ancaster, purchased the leasehold interest in the house. Her husband
became Lord Gwydyr, in course of time, and here assembled a remark-
able collection of china. He is known to have been so enthusiastic in
pursuit of his hobby, that on one occasion, as Mary Berry records in
1809, he purchased in Fogg's china-shop a service of Sevres for £600,
a great price in those days, while at the same time he bought a quantity
of other valuable and beautiful porcelain.
Wraxall gives an interesting account of the extraordinary good fortune
of the family with whom Gwydyr House is chiefly identified. Sir
Peter's second daughter married Lord Algernon Percy ; the third became
the wife, first of the Duke of Hamilton, and on his death, of the
first Marquis of Exeter, in 1800; and the other daughter was in 1779,
wedded, as his second wife, to the second Duke of Northumberland ;
' According to a statement in London Past and Present, it was erected in 1796, from
designs by John Marquand, a surveyor in the Woods and Forests office.
K
146 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
while his son, as I have indicated, married EHzabeth Bertie, eldest
daughter of the third Duke of Ancaster. Well might Wraxall remark
that within his remembrance " in no private family has that prosperous
chain of events which we denominate fortune, appeared to be so con-
spicuously displayed, or so strongly exemplified."
On the death of the Baroness Willoughby d'Eresby, the leasehold
interest enjoyed by that lady was left by her to her daughter, who had
become Countess of Clare, for her life ; but she seems not to have resided
here, but to have let the house, for in 1838 the Reform Club was occu-
pying it pending the building of their fine headquarters in Pall Mall ;
and later in 1842, the Government paid ;^700 a year for the mansion as a
home for the Commissioners of Woods. In this way it was held for
twenty-seven years, when the Poor Law Board replaced them.
The lease to the Burrell family expired, as I have said, in 1 87 1, on
which event the Commissioners of Woods took over the property at an
annual rental of ^1300. The Local Government Board was here, in the
following year, for a short time ; and in 1876 the Charity Commissioners
took possession and occupied the place until it was taken over by the
Board of Trade.
A wing of one storey was added to the building ten years since ;
but with that exception Gwydyr House remains externally as it appeared
when erected over one hundred and thirty years ago.
CARRINGTON, FORMERLY GOWER, HOUSE
Unlike Gwydyr House, the once famous residence known as Carrington
House has entirely disappeared, the site on which it stood being to-day
partly occupied by the stupendous buildings of the War Office, and the
Horse Guards Avenue which runs on the south side of it.
It was erected somewhere between the years 1764 and 1779, by the
second Lord Gower, who was created Marquis of Stafford in 1786, and of
whom Wraxall wrote that " his vast property, when added to his alliances
of consanguinity, or of marriage, with the first ducal families in the
country, rendered him one of the most considerable subjects in the
Kingdom." '
When Lord Gower built the house, the site on which it was erected
was officially described " as the front part towards the street (Whitehall),
consisting of old buildings that escaped the fire when Whitehall was
burned " ; the architect employed being Sir William Chambers. On
^ Posthumous Memoirs, vol. i. p. 232.
'4-7
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\
148 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
found among its foundations at the depths of some five or six feet, " the
remains of several clearly defined and well-made roads," which must
evidently have been formed before the Palace buildings extended over the
large area they covered in the days of Charles II. ; ^ while there was also
discovered, among other relics, an old elm pile pier or jetty, indicating the
former proximity of the river, as well as some glass tear-bottles, &c.
By the kindness of Lord Carrington, I have had access to a book of
photographs and paper-cuttings referring to Carrington House, and by
its help I am enabled to give some details of the splendid interior of the
mansion, as it was when still one of the great houses of London.
In the outer Hall was preserved the sedan-chair which the first Lady
Carrington habitually used ; and the niches in the inner Hall at the foot
of the grand staircase were filled with statues and busts ; a French clock
mounted on a pedestal, and a porcelain figure of Marie Antoinette stood
on a commode. In the Dining-Room, which had a rounded end, in the
middle of which was the fireplace of white statuary marble inlaid with
Brocatella, hung the equestrian portrait of Careno da Monanda ; while the
walls and ceiling were decorated with wreaths and garlands in high relief.
The Music-Room was octagonal in form, and in four of its walls were
recesses reaching nearly to the ceiling and filled with costly porcelain
plates and plaques arranged in patterns. With each side of the
Music-Room, Lord and Lady Carrington's Sitting-Rooms respectively
communicated ; in the former hung a portrait of Pitt over the mantel-
piece ; while Gainsborough's girl with a dog in her arms was placed
close by, and other pictures included a Dutch sea-piece and an old view
of Whitehall showing the Banqueting-Room ; in the latter, a beautiful
head of a girl by Greuze was noticeable, and the note of eighteenth-
century French art was further carried out by cabinets of rare Sevres
china, and a remarkable piece of Louis Quinze furniture containing a
clock surmounted by a group of cupids in Clodian's graceful style.
Another fine room was that known as Lord Carrington's Dressing-
Room, which had been restored on the advice of Count d'Orsay ;
the walls being hung in green satin, and the ceiling and doors decorated
in white and gold. It was, by-the-bye, from the windows of this room
that the Prince and Princess of Wales, with a distinguished company,
witnessed the great Liberal procession in favour of the Reform Bill of
1884, which marched down Whitehall on July 21st of that year, and
occupied over three hours in passing Carrington House.
The Blue Drawing-Room was one of the most beautiful apartments
in the mansion, and here the ceiling had been painted by Angelica
' A writer in the Birmingham Post for 1900, quoted by Canon Sheppard.
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PORTLAND HOUSE 149
Kauffmann ; while the compartments of the ceiHng of the Bali-Room
were also decorated by some almost equally facile brush. This room was
a superb one in every way, being no less than 60 feet long by 30
wide and proportionately lofty. It was decorated in the classic style of
which Chambers was so well-known an exponent, and with the painted
ceiling was in every way worthy of the many great functions that took
place within it. The splendid marble mantelpiece was, at the sale of
the materials of the house, purchased by Lord Carrington, and is now
at Wycombe Abbey. These mantelpieces were, indeed, a feature of
the house and fetched large prices ; that in the Blue Drawing-Room,
of white marble inlaid with slabs of Sienna, realising ^75 ; the carved
wooden one in the Steward's Room, with massive caryatids, ^60 ; that
in the Music-Room, of white statuary marble inlaid with Brocatella,
£^6 ; and those in other parts of the house proportionately good
amounts.^
It is interesting to know that all the floors of Carrington House were
of oak ; while the stone steps of the great staircase were no less than six
feet in width.
PORTLAND HOUSE
Just as Richmond House stood to the south of the present Montagu
House, so the large residence of the Duke of Portland once occupied
ground immediately to the north. The area covered by it and its gardens
was leased to William, first Earl of Portland, of the Bentinck line, in 1696.
This nobleman, who is known for his adherence to, and personal friend-
ship with, William HI., by whom he was raised to the peerage in 1689,
is spoken of by St. Simon in these terms : " Portland parut avec un eclat
personnel, une politesse, un air du monde et de cour, une galanterie et
des graces qui surprirent. Avec cela, beaucoup de dignity, meme de
hauteur." "- He married, en second noces, the Dowager Baroness Berkeley
of Stratton, whom I suppose to have been the widow of the third Lord
Berkeley of Stratton.
Although the usual first term of leases for ground within the old
palace precincts appears to have been generally for thirty-one years, that
granted to the Earl was for forty-two. For the benefit of those who
may have Vertue's plan of 1680 before them, the following extract from
the lease will help to show the relative position of the ground obtained,
to the buildings of the palace. It is spoken of as " abutting westerly
' Most of these were purchased by Lord Hilhngdon.
* Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 69.
I50 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
upon another passage . . . called the Stone Gallery . . . and adjoining
southerly to other ground whereon certain buildings formerly stood, late
consumed by the fire, and then ruined, and a kitchen there of Algernon,
Earl of Essex, extending in that part from a place where the Stone
Gallery also was formerly, upon the west part of the River Thames . . .
and abutting easterly upon a yard or garden called the ' Terras Walk,'
and upon the River of Thames, and containing in that part 105 feet,
little more or less." ^
From a manuscript plan preserved in the Office of Woods and Forests,
Portland House appears to have been a large and imposing structure,
but from the official reports made when fresh leases were applied for,
mention is only made of " a slight old building, part timber and part
brick," with some out-buildings, together estimated at only ^200 per
annum, as they are described when, in 1724, the first Duke of Portland
(so created in 1716, having succeeded his father as second Earl in 1709)
petitioned for a new lease. The Duke died two years later and before
the lease had been granted, when his widow, in 1738, obtained a fresh
grant for a term of thirty-six years. Six years after this, the second
Duke of Portland applied for and obtained a fresh lease of fifty years
of the property, at which time the Dowager Countess of Portland (widow
of the first Earl) also obtained a fresh lease for a similar term, of premises
she had occupied for some time previous to the year 1719, which, it is
stated, comprised as well as ground " a house which she had repaired
at a cost of at least ^500," and which was officially acknowledged to be
" very substantially built."
Again, so much later as 1772, when the third Duke applied for a
fresh lease, the buildings were described as being "in so ruinous a con-
dition at the time of the last renewal that there were several props under
them to support them from falling down," and although " they are now
in a better state," proceeds the report, they were only valued at ^^200
per annum, as they had been in 1724.
What I therefore gather from the very complicated nature of the
data given, is that the property belonged to the head of the Bentinck
family, and that the house on it was used as a Dower House, first by
the Dowager Countess and afterwards by the Dowager Duchess, widow
of the first Duke." I am somewhat confirmed in this by the fact that
the first Duke of Portland lived in St. James's Square from 1710 to
' Quoted in The Old Palace of Whitehall; where it is stated that although the mansion was
afterwards known as Portland House, no mention is made of it in the books of the Office of
Woods and Forests.
" In the Grace collection is a "View of the House and Museum of the late Duchess of
Portland " ; being a drawing by J. Bromley, dated 1796.
PORTLAND HOUSE 151
1722, at old St. Albans House, and had previously resided in another
house close by before that, so that it is obvious that he did not reside in
Whitehall ; and the only mention of a residence in any sense comparable
to the outlines given on the plan I have referred to before, occurs in
connection with petitions by the Countess of Portland for new leases.
It was this lady who had a lengthy dispute with her neighbour. Lord
Pembroke, on the question of her right to use the " Terras Walk," with
the result that she surrendered her lease, and obtained the fresh one
in 1744, to which I have before referred. Subsequently her house was
divided into two dwellings, one of them being occupied, in 1773, by
Captain, afterwards Admiral, Bentinck, and the other by a Mr. Andrew
Stone, who died in 1774; when, a little over thirty years later, his widow
obtained a further term of seventeen years of the premises.
In 1805, the Duke of Portland sold his interest in the property to
the Crown, and certain buildings upon it were soon afterwards pulled
down. There still, however, remained the old mansion, divided, as I
have said, into two residences. That portion once belonging to Stone
later became the property of Lady Exeter, who lived there, and who, when
Whitehall Gardens were commenced on the site of that portion of the
property sold by the Duke of Portland, refused to give up her interest
in the house. The lease of it, however, ran out in 1824, when Sir Robert
Peel became the owner, and he and Mr. Grant, who had come into pos-
session of Admiral Bentinck's residence adjoining, pulled down their old
houses and built three on their site, Mr. Grant being responsible for two
of them. It is said that Sir Robert's cost him ^14,000 to build, and
the two erected by Mr. Grant together but ;£iooo more. These three
residences completed the terrace as designed by the Crown. It was in
his house here that Sir Robert Peel died in 1850, having taken up his
residence here in 1828. It is numbered 4 Whitehall Gardens, and re-
mains substantially as it was, so far at any rate as external appearance
goes, in his day, when its walls were covered by that magnificent collec-
tion of pictures which now forms one of the glories of the National Gallery.
Here Haydon used to come with his eloquent appeals for State aid on
behalf of historical painting, and here much of the history of the earlier
years of Queen Victoria's reign was made. Having this latter point in
view it is curious and interesting to know that at No. 2 Benjamin Disraeli
lived for some years from 1873, and it is probable that here he wrote
Lothair, in which occurs the famous description of Stafford House which
I have noticed elsewhere in this volume.
152 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
FIFE HOUSE
Most of the great houses on the Thames side of old Whitehall had
grounds or rights of way extending to the river, but one of them — Fife
House — stood practically on its very bank, where old Whitehall Stairs
had been before.
Its site appears to have been occupied originally by a house built
about 1685 by Patrick Lambe, one of Charles II.'s master-cooks, who
had obtained at that date a thirty-one years' lease for the purpose. This
house appears to have been burnt at the time of the disastrous fire, and so
much later as 1717, Edmund Dunch is found obtaining a lease of the
ground, which lease was confirmed to his widow five years later, for a term
of fifty years ; when, however, thirty years of it had expired, she applied
for a fresh one, which being granted, became some ten years later vested in
Sir George and Lady Oxenden, who stated their intention of building one
or two new houses on the site ; this, however, they did not do, but sold
their lease to the second Earl of Fife, who, in 1764, obtained a fresh
lease of the property, and it would seem practically rebuilt the mansion
in 1772. He found, however, that the foreshore between his land and
the river was " dumping ground " for all the refuse of the neighbour-
hood, and he applied to be allowed to " embank to low water," and to
take the ground thus recovered into his own garden. Although it was
officially stated that such a proposed embankment would not be liable to
affect the navigation of the river, and would prove an efficient remedy
against the nuisance complained of, and although a lease had been granted
for that purpose in 1782, nothing appears to have been done till 1805,
when, in an application for a fresh lease. Lord Fife points out that beyond
having spent a large amount in " building and adorning " the house, he
was then occupied in forming, at great expense, an embankment on the
ground leased to him over twenty years previously.
Four years after this, however. Lord Fife died, when his lease was
assigned to the Earl of Liverpool, in consideration of a sum of ^12,000,
and he, in 1825, obtained a fresh lease of the whole property. Lord
Liverpool, whose career as a statesman is well known, was Prime Minister
from 1 812 to 1827, and it was in the latter year that he was seized with
a paralytic stroke in the library here, which eventually caused his death
in 1829, when his half-brother, the third Earl, succeeded him in the
ownership of the mansion; he dying in September 1851, the lease was
assigned to Mr. George Savile Foljambe, his son-in-law, who resided here
till i860, eight years after which date the property reverted to the Crown.
FIFE HOUSE 153
Mr. Foljambe's son was created Lord Hawkesbury in 1893,^ and in
his town residence, 2 Carlton House Terrace, is now preserved the bulk
of the furniture which was formerly in Fife House, and which was removed
hither some forty-six years since, when that residence was given up.
Pennant gives some details of the interior decorations of Fife House :
" In the great room is some very fine tapestry," he says, and adds, " I
never can suihciently admire the expression of passions in two of the
subjects ; the fine history of Joseph disclosing himself to his brethren, and
that of Susanna accused by the two elders. Here are also great numbers
of fine paintings by foreign masters ; but, as I confine myself to those
which relate to our own country, I shall only mention a small three-
quarters of Mary Stuart, with her child, an infant, standing on a table
before her. This beautiful performance is on marble. A head of
Charles I., when Prince of Wales, done in Spain, when he was there in
1625,^ on his romantic expedition to court the Infanta. It is supposed
to be the work of Velasquez. A portrait of William, Earl of Pembroke,
Lord High Chamberlain in the beginning of the reign of Charles I. ;
a small full length in black, with his white rod in one hand, his hat in the
other, standing in a room looking into a garden. Such is the merit of
this piece, that, notwithstanding it is supposed to have been the per-
formance of Jameson, the Scotch Vandyck, yet it hath often been attri-
buted to the great Flemish painter."
The pictures of a later date which once hung here included Romney's
portrait of the first Earl of Liverpool ; two of the second Earl by Hoppner
and Lawrence respectively, and a portrait of William Pitt.
Fife House existed for just upon a hundred years, having been completed
in 1772 and demolished in 1869. Although without any particular preten-
tions to architectural beauty, its rooms were commodious and its staircase
fine ; while its grounds, after the addition had been made to them by
the enclosing and embanking of the foreshore, must have been delightful ;
and Pennant remarks on the matchless view obtained from them of the
two bridges, " with the magnificent expanse of water, Somerset House,
St. Paul's, and multitudes of other objects less magnificent, but which
serve to complete the beautiful scene."
It was this proximity to the river that made it possible to bring the
coal supply to the house by water, and to shoot the coal direct from
barges into the cellar — perhaps a unique method, so far as nineteenth
century houses are concerned, of delivering fuel.
1 The third Lord Liverpool was also third Lord Hawkesbury, of a former creation (1786),
and the title was thus restored in favour of Mr. Foljambe.
* This is an error ; Charles was of course in Spain in 1623.
154 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Two other interesting facts regarding Fife House are recorded, one
being that the old entrance gates are now at the Duke of Fife's late
residence at Sheen, or were till recently (for the place has since been
sold), they having been purchased by Lord Carrington and presented
to the Duke on his marriage ; and the other that Lord Fife, who
built the mansion, swore that if he lived in London he would do so
on Scotch soil, for which purpose gravel was brought from Doune
(afterwards called Macduff) in Scotland to form the foundations of the
mansion ! ^
There were of course a number of lesser houses on this, the river, side
of Whitehall — Cromwell House, and Holdernesse House known later as
Michael Angelo Taylor's House ; Malmesbury House, and Lord
Grantham's residence, all situated in what was once Whitehall Yard,
where the Horse Guards Avenue and the War Office now stand, but
they were not of the importance of those already mentioned in this
chapter. On the other side of Whitehall, however, were several extremely
important mansions, one or two of which, sadly curtailed and incor-
porated with the great series of Government buildings that now stand
there, must be mentioned. Of these are Dover House ; Stanhope or
Dorset House ; Wallingford House ; and Rochester or Clarendon House.
Dover House still exists ; Wallingford House is incorporated in the
Admiralty ; Rochester House has long since passed away ; and only a
portion, but that a considerable one, of Stanhope House still remains
behind the frontage of the Treasury.
DOVER HOUSE
Like many of the great houses in Whitehall, Dover House has passed
through various vicissitudes, and has had several changes of nomenclature ;
that which it still bears being derived from the title of its last private
owner. As it still exists it is easy to identify its relative position with
that of old Whitehall. Thus we see that the main portion of the building —
that is, the part facing the Horse Guards Parade — lies outside the precincts
of the palace, while the entrance in Whitehall, with the large Dome and
Portico, stands on the site of the lodgings of the Duke of Ormonde, which
joined the famous Holbein Gateway on the west side, so that the exact
' A drawing by T. Chawner, dated 1828, is in the Grace collection, and shows the entrance
to Fife House. The gates were immediately behind Carrington House, to the east, and Sir
John Vanbrugh's little house, afterwards used as the Royal United Service Institution, stood
adjoining them to the north. To a spot near here the colony of rooks, once domiciled in the
trees of Carlton House gardens, migrated in 1827.
DOVER HOUSE 155
relative position of that structure to the present thoroughfare can be at
once reahsed.
The earHest mention of the original house occurs in the year 171 7,
when a lease of it was granted to Mr. Hugh Boscawen for the usual thirty-
one years. Mr. Boscawen occupied the position of Comptroller of the
Household from 17 14 to 1720, and as such had been already in official
possession of a portion of the Duke of Ormonde's old lodgings. Adjoining
these were certain rooms occupied by Mr. Vanhuls or Van Huls, as it is
variously spelt, who had been Clerk of the Robes to Queen Anne ; and
soon after obtaining his lease, Mr. Boscawen acquired these apartments
also. On June i8th, 1720, he was created Viscount Falmouth, and in
the same year he applied for a fresh lease of his original holding together
with Mr. Vanhuls' lodgings, and, in addition, of a small piece of ground
on what is now the Horse Guards Parade, but was then known by its
old name of the Tilt Yard. This application was granted, but power
was reserved to the Crown to pull down Holbein's Gateway, and to make
the buildings abutting on Whitehall level with the thoroughfare, which
meant the cutting off one apartment which in Vertue's plan of 1680
appears to be part and parcel with the gate itself, but which had been
occupied, with the rest of his lodgings, by the Duke of Ormonde.
Lord Falmouth, one of those who deserted Walpole's Ministry on
the question of the investigation of the sale of the forfeited South Sea
Company estates, and whom Hervey called " a blundering blockhead who
spoke on one side and voted on the other," on which a wit said that the
noble lord was evidently determined to do the Government all the harm
he could, as he spoke for them and voted against them, died in 1734, and
four years later his widow, who, by-the-bye, was niece of the great Duke of
Marlborough, petitioned for a fresh lease, which was granted for thirty-
seven years from 1752 (the former lease being due to expire in that year).
Two years later, however, this lease was disposed of to Sir Matthew
Featherstonehaugh, who, having obtained a still further extension, rebuilt
the house from the designs of James Paine, the architect.^ On his death
twenty years later, his widow obtained a further lease for the rather odd
term of nineteen years, from 1805. But in the meantime — in 1787, to
be precise — Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh, who had succeeded his father in
the baronetcy, sold the leasehold interest to the Duke of York for £12,600.
In the following year, a Royal Warrant having been obtained for the
purpose, the Duke reconstructed the mansion by adding a new front to
VVhitehall, consisting of the Dome and Portico which still exist, as well as
' The work was executed between 1754 and 1758. There is a plan of the basement of
Dover House in the Grace collection.
156 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
a grand staircase in the Ionic style designed by Henry Holland, a view of
which, entitled " The Duke of York's house, as altered by Holland, 1787,"
is in the Grace collection.^ A fropos of the circular entrance Hall, Lord
North is said to have remarked : " Then the Duke of York, it would
seem, has been sent to the Round House, and the Prince of Wales is put
in the Pillory " ; this referring, of course, to the pillars which once stood
in the front of Carlton House, and now support the portico of the National
Gallery. The Duke also obtained powers to rail in some extra ground on
the Horse Guards Parade. Having made these improvements, His Royal
Highness applied for, and obtained, a further lease of fifty years from
1 791, and gave the mansion the name of York House. But the Duke,
who never seems to have been happy for long in one place, had about
this time cast envious eyes on the first Lord Melbourne's fine freehold
residence in Piccadilly, now known as Albany, and having come to terms
with his lordship, exchanged York House for Melbourne House in
November 1792, making an equivalent money payment in view of his
residence being only leasehold.
York House now became known as Melbourne House,^ and as its
existing lease was due to expire in 1842, Lord Melbourne, in 1823, ob-
tained a further extension for forty years from the former date. Seven
years later, however, he died, whereupon his executors assigned his interest
in the property to the Rt. Hon. James Welbore Agar-Ellis, son and heir of
Viscount Clifden, and afterwards the accomplished Lord Dover, who
wrote a " Life of Frederick the Great," among other productions. After
his death, his widow became possessed of it and resided here for a time,
and in 1864 it passed to Lord Clifden. He lived here till his death,
after which event Lady Clifden continued here till the expiration of the
lease in 1882, when for three years longer she occupied it on a yearly
tenancy. The Government then took possession of the property and
converted it into the office of the Chief Secretary for Scotland and other
cognate branches of the Civil Service.
STANHOPE, OR DORSET HOUSE
Rather to the south of Dover House stood Stanhope, or as it was
later called, Dorset House, after it had been enlarged. Its Whitehall
• In the same collection is a print of the mansion by ISIiller, engraved by MedlancI, and
dated 1795 ; and also another entitled " Melbourne House, formerly York House."
^ It is stated in London Past and Present, that in 1774 the mansion had already been
occupied by Lord Melbourne, whose famous son, the future Prime Minister, was born here, five
years later ; while the same authority states that General Amherst once resided here. If so, it
must have been let on occasion by Lady Featherstonehaugh, which is not improbable.
STANHOPE HOUSE 157
front, a portion of which still remains, occupies ground once covered
by the lodgings of the Duke of Monmouth, abutting to the north, on
the entrance to the Cockpit, and thus occupying an almost central
position on the west side of the road, between Holbein's Gate and the
King Street Gate. The Surveyor-General's report confirms this, for the
house is there described as " situate in or near ye part of ye Pallace afore-
said, called ye Cockpit : on ye west side of ye Street, between ye two gates,
leading from Charing Cross to Westminster." The portion towards
St. James's Park occupied part of the site of the Duke of Albemarle's
lodgings, which lay to the east and south of the Cockpit.
Although, according to Canon Sheppard, the first lease of the house
was granted in 1717, an advertisement in the London Gaz-ette,^ dated 1672,
indirectly proves that it was known as Stanhope House thus much earlier ;
I give the extract as being in other ways also interesting :—
" There was a trunk on Saturday last, being the i8th inst. (July)
cut off from behind the Duke of Albemarle's coach, wherein there was a
gold George, 18 shirts, a Tennis sute laced, with several fronts and laced
Cravats and other linen ; if any can give tidings of them to Mr. Lymbyery,
the Duke's Steward at Stanhope House, near Whitehall, they shall have
five pounds for their pains and all charges defrayed."
It would therefore seem that the Duke's lodgings were then known
by this name. But why " Stanhope " ? It sounds like a daring anticipa-
tion, for there is no record of the place belonging to the Stanhope family
till the lease of 1717 was granted to Thomas Pitt, Esq., trustee and father-
in-law of the Rt. Hon. James Stanhope, who was created Viscount Stan-
hope in this very year. This James Stanhope was the grandson of the
second Earl of Chesterfield, and therefore cousin of the fourth and great
Earl. Now this second Earl lived, and died in Bloomsbury Square,
in 171 3, but it is not improbable that at one period of his career he may
have had lodgings assigned to him in Whitehall (for he was well known
as a devoted royalist), and that these apartments adjoined those of the
Duke of Albemarle, and were once known collectively as Stanhope
House, and further, that the lease granted on behalf of his grandson
was an extension of an original grant. This is, I confess, mere con-
jecture, but the place could hardly have been known, in 1672, as Stanhope
House unless it had had some connection with the Stanhope famUy.
The 1717 lease was for thirty-one years, and having been obtained,
Mr. Pitt expended a considerable sum of money in improving the pro-
perty, and a further lease of ground in St. James's Park, apparently just
beyond the old Cockpit, was obtained at the same time.
* Quoted in London Past and Present.
158 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Lord Stanhope did not enjoy possession of the property for long,
for, in 1 72 1, he died, his wife only surviving him two years, when the
place was sold to Lionel Cranfield, who succeeded his father as the seventh
Earl of Dorset in 1707, and was created a Duke thirteen years later. The
Duke, who figures largely in the political and social annals of the early
Georges, was, according to Mrs. Delany, " very graceful and princely,"
while Lord Shelburne calls him " in all respects a perfect English courtier."
From him Stanhope House took its later name of Dorset House.
Shortly after coming into possession, the Duke applied for a fresh
lease, to embrace not only the portion he had become possessed of, but
also certain lodgings occupied by the Archbishop of Canterbury and
the Bishop of London, which were part and parcel of this property,
being, I assume, portions of the Duke of Albemarle's lodgings, which,
by Vertue's plan, are shown as extending over a large area — indeed from
the north of the Cockpit to Downing Street. This application was
followed by the granting of a new fifty-years' lease (the old one being
surrendered) of the whole property, including these ecclesiastical apart-
ments ; the Duke, at the same time, agreeing to permit the Archbishop
and Bishop to remain in possession till they had been otherwise accom-
modated. Nearly twenty years later another fifty-years' lease was
obtained by the Duke, probably in consequence, as was generally the case,
of his having either rebuilt the place, or added to and repaired it.
In 1763, the Duke died, when the lease became the property of his
well-known third son, Lord George Sackville, afterwards Lord George
Germain and Viscount Sackville (1782), who had been born in 1716,
in his father's then residence in the Haymarket. Lord George applied,
in 1772, for a fresh lease, which was granted for a term of seventeen years
from 1805, the date of the expiration of the existing one. Lord Sackville,
however, died on August 26th, 1785, when the lease of Dorset House was
transferred to his nephew, John Frederick, who had succeeded as third
Duke of Dorset in 1769. At his death in 1799, his widow (Arabella,
daughter of Sir Charles Cope, Bart.), continued to reside here, and in
1803 she applied for a fresh lease in favour of herself and her second
husband, Charles, Lord Whitworth, whom she had married in 1801.
The name of Lord Whitworth was well known in the diplomatic
world at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Envoy Extraordinary
to Copenhagen in 1800, he was also Ambassador to Paris from 1801 to
1803, during which time occurred that incident, at one of the official
receptions, when Bonaparte's celebrated rudeness to the envoy precipi-
tated, as it was meant to do, war between this country and France.
Wraxall speaks of Whitworth as being " highly favoured by nature," and
ROCHESTER HOUSE 159
affirms that " his address even exceeded his figure." Sir Thomas
Lawrence painted a well-known portrait of him, and in his earlier days,
Horace Walpole had issued from the Strawberry Hill Press his Account
of Russia.
Soon after applying for a new lease of Dorset House the Duchess
of Dorset offered to sell her interest in the property to the Crown, but
the Crown not only did not wish to buy, but also refused to grant a
new lease. In 1808, however, an arrangement was come to by which
the Government did purchase the remainder of the Duchess's interest,
and two years later the buildings were adapted for the use of the
Treasury, which thereupon proceeded to occupy them, and thus put the
final touch to the process by which Stanhope, or Dorset House, as a
private residence, ceased to exist.
ROCHESTER HOUSE
The two mansions about which there remains something to say, are
Rochester, or as it was sometimes called. Clarendon House, and WaUing-
ford House. The former takes its name from Lawrence Hyde, Earl of
Rochester, the second son of the great Earl of Clarendon, who was created
an Earl in 1682, and who filled a number of high offices under four
sovereigns, being Ambassador and first Lord of the Treasury under
Charles H., Lord High Treasurer under James ; Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland under William III., and Lord President of the Council under
Anne. He was thus a person of vast importance in his day ; and when
Burnet remarks that " he was thought the smoothest man in the court,"
we can well understand that, to have served successfully so many variously-
minded rulers, he certainly must have been.
He was living in the house I am now speaking of, somewhere between
1679 ^'^'^ 1686, probably in the former year, when he became first Lord
of the Treasury. By Vertue's plan the site of the house is shown as
occupied by lodgings appertaining to one Captain Cooke ; ^ at least so it
is assumed, as the exact position of Rochester House appears never to
have been quite satisfactorily identified. In 1686, says Canon Sheppard,
Lord Rochester " directed the Surveyor-General to view the house near
the Privy Garden, where he lived, and to make a Constat " {i.e. to draw up
particulars for a lease) " in order to the passing to him of a lease of such
' This was the Captain Cooke mentioned by Evelyn as being considered "ye best singer
after ye Italian manner of any in England," and to whom Pepys has so many references. It
was he who, after serving in the royal army, was made, at the Restoration, Master of the
Children of the Chapel Royal. He was a fine musician, and died in 1672.
i6o THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
part thereof as was not in the lease, already for thirty-one years . . . for
such a term of reversion as might make up the present term to be thirty-
one years." This was presently done, and by its terms, which I need not
recapitulate here, it would appear that there were two separate houses
on the property in question, one being on the site of Captain Cooke's
premises, and the other adjoining them and abutting on the King Street
Gateway, which would be nearly at the north-east corner of Downing
Street, together with certain buildings on the other side of the road at
the south-west angle of the Privy Garden.
On Lord Rochester's death, his son Henry, who succeeded him as
second Earl, applied for a fresh lease of fifty years, in order that it might
be worth his while to repair and otherwise spend money on the property,
which was stated to be badly in need of it. This request appears to
have been acceded to, but whether wholly or only in a modified form,
is not clear. However the matter, as it affects us here, is not of great
importance, because some dozen years later the Crown appears to have
resumed possession of the property, one of the reasons given for its doing
so being the desire to demolish the King Street Gate, which, according
to Pennant, was taken down in 1723, as was the Holbein Gate thirty-six
years later.
In 1725, on the application of Horatio Walpole, Auditor and Surveyor-
General of His Majesty's Revenues, who required an office at this time,
a portion of Rochester House was granted to him ; and some years later
(1738) he obtained a lease of an ale-house and three other houses at the
corner of Downing Street, specifically to enlarge his premises, which
however, he does not appear, after all, to have done. A succession of
leases was subsequently granted to the Walpoles, but the last one (for
a reversionary term of nineteen years from 1 8 14) was purchased by the
Crown, the old buildings taken down, and Government offices eventually
erected on their site.
Indeed, as will be seen, the details as to Rochester House are some-
what vague, and at best technical ; but it seemed to require a word on
account of the one illustrious person, Hyde, Earl of Rochester, whose
residence for a time it was. Little Wallingford and Pickering Houses
are in much the same case, and as they were smaller and had no central
figure of interest about them, although they were connected at various
times with the Hay and Glyn families, I need say nothing here regarding
their history, especially as that will be found given as fuUy as documentary
evidence allows, in Canon Sheppard's work.
WALLINGFORD HOUSE i6i
WALLINGFORD HOUSE
Of the last of the more important Whitehall mansions, Wallingford
House, or, as it was also once called, Peterborough House, which has for so
many years been identified with the Admiralty, the interest is, however,
of a much more striking kind. It is connected with a number of im-
portant historical figures from the reign of James I. to that of Charles H.
Here lived the brilliant Buckingham, and later the Republican Fleet-
wood ; here also Lady Peterborough kept up her state, and here for a
short time the profligate second Duke of Buckingham may have passed
some restless hours of his feverish existence. But, notwithstanding
these private owners, the place seems always to have had a semi-official
air about it, which made its transformation into a Government office
not so startling an innovation as is the case with some other of the great
houses in Whitehall.
WaUingford House was erected in the reign of James I. by Sir William
KnoUys. Sir William was Treasurer of the Household to Queen Eliza-
beth, and very nearly occupied a still more exalted position, for the
Queen had named him, according to Miss Strickland, Lord Deputy in
Ireland ; and it was on this occasion that Lord Essex boldly opposed his
nomination, which led to the famous scene when Elizabeth boxed
Essex's ears, and he laid his hand on his sword and half turned his back
on his royal mistress, who thereupon told him to " go and be hanged." ^
After the Queen's death. Sir William became Treasurer to James I.,
and was subsequently created Baron Knollys (1603), Viscount Wallingford
(1616), and Earl of Banbury (1626). He seems to have taken the second
title on account of his having been Constable of Wallingford Castle and
High Steward of the Manor of Wallingford, in 1601, and as he gave this
name to his London house, it practically proves that the mansion was
erected between 1616 and 1621-22, when the Duke of Buckingham bought
it, although, as Lord Wallingford's father. Sir Francis KnoUys," is said to
have occupied an official residence here, before him, it is not improbable
that he merely rebuilt or enlarged a former mansion here. Under what
circumstances George ViUiers, Duke of Buckingham, purchased Walling-
ford House is not quite clear. Lord Wallingford did not die till 1632,
but if John Chamberlain, a correspondent of Sir Dudley Carleton's, is
correct, the purchase was arranged partly on a money basis, and partly
' Camden.
' He was only son of Robert Knollys, of Rotherfield Greys, Oxon., and was related to
Queen Elizabeth, having married Catherine, daughter of William Carey by the Lady Mary
Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother.
L
i62 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
" by making Sir Thomas Howard Baron of Charlton and Viscount
Andover ; and some think the reUeving of the Lord of Somerset and
his lady out of the Tower." ^ This latter extraordinary and unsavoury
circumstance wove itself, at that time, into so many public and domestic
matters that it is not at all improbable that its vitiating influence even
affected the changing of the owners of Wallingford House. In any
case, it is a curious fact that, in 1615, orders were given to Somerset
" to keep his chamber near the Cockpit," and to his Countess " to keep
her chamber at the Blackfriars, or at Lord Knolly's house near the
Tiltyard."
In the year after the Duke of Buckingham had taken possession, his
first child, called " Jacobina " after the King, was born here in March,
and a contemporary records that " during the illness of the Marchioness,^
the King prayed heartily for her, and was at Wallingford House early
and late."
It would appear that at first Buckingham fixed his private residence
at Wallingford House ; but when, on the fall of Bacon, York House be-
came vacant, and the Duke subsequently obtained it * for himself, the
greater splendour of the latter mansion caused him to give his great and
costly entertainments there, although he seems to have still resided at
Wallingford House, as is proved by the fact that his son, the second Duke,
was born there so much later as 1627 ; and also that he used it as his
official residence, as Bassompierre's references to it, when he was over here
in the previous year as French Ambassador, indicate.
Bassompierre, who never could master the intricacies of the English
language, spells Wallingford variously as Valinfort and Vialenforaux, and
records visiting the Duke here on October 30, 1626, and again on
November 20th of the same year. In view of Buckingham's possession
of these two mansions, it is strange to find Howell, the letter-writer, ad-
vising him about this time to have a fixed residence ; but perhaps it was
the Duke's constant change from one house to the other, that eHcited
this excellent advice. It must, I think, have been in the gardens of
Wallingford House that the following circumstance took place which has
been recorded by most of the biographers of Charles I. and of the Duke.
It is said that the King was at Spring Gardens, which might easily
mean the favourite's residence close by, watching a game of bowls, when
Buckingham remained, unhke the rest of the courtiers, covered. Ob-
' CiiUitdar of State Papers, 1603-1610. See an interesting note by Croker, in his edition
of Bassompierre's Embassy to England, p. 70.
•^ Villiers had been created Marquis of Buckingham in 1619, and was advanced to the
dukedom in 1623.
^ See chapter ii., where the connection of Buckingham with York House is dealt with.
WALLINGFORD HOUSE 163
serving this want of respect, a Scotchman who was present suddenly-
knocked off the Duke's hat, exclaiming, " Off with your hat before the
King." Buckingham immediately kicked the officious gentleman, where-
upon Charles interposed with, " Let him alone, George, he is either mad
or a fool." " No, sir," replied the man, " I am a sober man ; and if your
Majesty would give me leave, I will tell you that of this man which many
know and none dare speak." ^
On the assassination of Buckingham, in 1628, his body was brought
from Portsmouth to Wallingford House, and here lay in state before its
interment. At this date, as the second Duke was but an infant, the
Board of Admiralty — which Buckingham had instituted when he was Lord
High Admiral, and whose sittings were in his lifetime held here— was
continued at Wallingford House after his death ; and it appears that
the Lord Treasurer's Office was also domiciled here, as warrants signed
Weston, Cottington, and Portland," are extant bearing dates of 1632
and 1634, ^^'^ given at Wallingford House.
In the following year, the Dowager Duchess (she was daughter of
the sixth Earl of Rutland) was married here to Lord Dunluce, an event
thus mentioned by Garrard in a letter to Wentworth : ^ " April 14, 1635.
The Duchess of Buckingham was married about a week since to the Lord
Dunluce, and are (sic) to live at Wallingford House, whence the Treasurer's
family removes." How long the Duchess and her husband resided here
is uncertain, but in the year in which Charles L was beheaded, the
house was in the occupation of the second Earl of Peterborough and his
Countess, daughter of the Earl of Thomond, and it was from its roof
that Archbishop Usher saw Charles led to execution. The sight proved
too much for the old (he was then sixty-nine) royalist who had lost nearly
all his property in Ireland through his devotion to the King ; and as,
from the distance, he saw his master standing on the scaffold, his forti-
tude entirely forsook him, and sinking down with horror, he was carried
fainting to his rooms.
Under the Commonwealth, the General Council of the officers of
the army, known as the " Wallingford House Party," assembled here
after the Protector's death, with the intention of preventing Monk's
attempt to bring about the Restoration. Vane and Fleetwood were
leaders in this movement, and as the latter was at that time residing here,
it seems fairly obvious that the meeting was organised by him. The
' The story is also given in the Curiosities of Literature^ and by Jesse in his Memoirs of
the Court of England utnter tlie Stuarts.
' Weston, afterwards Lord Portland, was Lord Treasurer, and Cottington Under Treasurer,
at this period.
' See the Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 413.
1 64 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
details of this fruitless conspiracy are given at length in Ludlow's interest-
ing Memoirs}
At the Restoration, WaUingford House reverted to the second Duke
of Buckingham, but although he used it as a private residence, it also
continued in its official capacity as the headquarters of the Admiralty
Board, and as the office of the Lord Treasurer.
It was here, too, that in 1670 the Duke inaugurated that famous
(or infamous) " Cabal Ministry," whose meetings, however, he was too
wise to allow to take place in a spot so exposed to public observation,
and consequently they were held in the solitude of Ham House instead.
Hence, too, in the same and the two following years he started on those
extraordinary embassies to the Continent in which he was the principal
and splendid figure.
This man, " so various that he seemed to be, not one but all mankind's
epitome," as Dryden sings, found time in the midst of political and
diplomatic duties to write The Rehearsal, produced in 1670 ; just as he
had a few years previously personally superintended all the details con-
nected with the lying in state here of the body of Cowley, the poet,
who had been his intimate friend and college companion, and who died
while staying at WalHngford House. Evelyn thus records the circum-
stances of the poet's obsequies, under date of August 3, 1667 : " Went
to Mr. Cowley's funerall, whose corps lay at WaUingford House, and
was thence conveyed to Westminster Abbey in a hearse with six horses
and all funerall decency, neare an hundred coaches of noblemen and
persons of qualitie following ; among these all the witts of the towne,
divers bishops and clergymen."
Lord Clifford of Chudleigh, who was Lord Treasurer, and was created
a peer in 1672, and died in the September of the following year, was one
of those officially connected with WaUingford House, and in the Calendar
of State Papers are various letters emanating from the Lord Treasurer's
office, and dated from here, notably one from Clifford himself on
April 29, 1673, and others in 1674 ^^^ 'i^SjS.
Clifford's tragic end is well known, and the foUowing reference to
Evelyn's last interview with him at WaUingford House has therefore a
pathetic interest. Writes the diarist, on August 18, 1672 : " I went to
take leave of him at WaUingford House. He was packing up pictures,
most of which were of hunting wild beasts, and vaste pieces of buU-baiting,
beare-baiting, &c. I found him in his study, and restored to him several
papers of state and others of importance, which he had furnished me
with, on engaging me to write the Historic of the HoUand War, with
' See vol. ii. p. 168 cl scq. of the 1751 edition.
WALLINGFORD HOUSE 165
other private letters of his aclcnowledgments to my Lord ArHngton,
who from a private gentleman of a very noble family, but inconsiderable
fortune, had advanced him from almost nothing. . . . Taking leave of
my Lord Clifford, he wrung me by the hand, and looking earnestly on
me, bid me good-bye, adding, ' Mr. E., I shall never see you more.'
' No ! ' said I ; ' my lord, what's the meaning of this ? I hope I shall
see you often and as greate a person againe.' ' No, Mr. E., do not expect
it ; I will never see this place, this City or Courte againe,' or words of
this sound. In this manner, not without almost mutual tears, I parted
from him ; nor was it long after, but newes was that he was dead, and I
have heard from some who I believe knew, he made himself away, after an
extraordinary melancholy."
In 1680 Wallingford House was purchased by the Crown and converted
into the office of the Admiralty, and fifteen years later a grant was made of
a portion of Spring Gardens for use in conjunction with it. The old house
was puUed down in 1720, and five years later the present buildings were
erected from designs by that Thomas Ripley who, as Walpole says, " wanted
taste and fell under the lash of lasting satire " ; the satire being that of
Pope, who, in the " Dunciad," not only satirically exclaims :
" See under Ripley rise a new Whitehall,"
but also writes :
" Who builds a bridge, that never drove a pile ?
Should Ripley venture all the world would smile."
But Walpole seems to infer that this reference was due to the fact that
Ripley was not countenanced by Lord Burlington, Pope's patron, and
he adds that although the Admiralty is an ugly building, yet, in the
disposition of apartments and conveniences, it was superior to the Earl
himself.^
As may be seen from Bowles's view of it, published in 1731, the wings
dwarf the central portion ; and an ugly wall ran along the Whitehall
front. However, De Saussure, who saw it just after its completion, in
December 1725, speaks of it as " a fine building," and he adds : " The
chief, or president, of the Admiralty resides here ; the noblemen who
compose its board assemble in its walls ; and you can generally see many
well-known sea captains and men on business intent." '
' I.e. superior as to interior arrangements to those mansions, such as Burlington House,
Marshal Wade's house, &c., which the Earl had designed. Anecdotes of Painting.
* A Foreign View of England.
1 66 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
When the novelty of the new building had somewhat worn off, the
unsightliness of the wall before mentioned roused an outcry of artistic
indignation, and in 1760 Robert Adam was commissioned to build the
screen which at present divides the structure from the street, and which
Horace Walpole considered handsome, and later authorities have regarded
as one of the most successful of its architect's designs.
In 1733 Admiral Byng, Viscount Torrington, died in apartments
that had been allotted to him here ; and in 1805 the body of Lord Nelson
lay in state here before being taken to St. Paul's.
There are some good Grinling Gibbons carvings and some interesting
portraits in the Board Room, and the long connection of the Admiralty
with this spot is well sustained ; but of the once famous residence of
the brilliant Buckingham only a small court, called after his name,
and running by the side of the present building, helps to preserve the
memory.
ASHBURNHAM HOUSE, WESTMINSTER
In the last chapter, when speaking of Ashburnham House, Dover
Street, I mentioned a mansion of the same name in Westminster about
which I want to say something more fully ; and I do so here, as, although
it did not stand actually in Whitehall, its position was so close to that
historic spot, that its inclusion in this chapter seems appropriate.
Ashburnham House in Little Deans Yard, was probably erected between
1650 and 1660, by John Webb, who appears to have completed the de-
signs of the residence already prepared by his father-in-law and master,
Inigo Jones. As in the case of the building of Castle Ashby, also de-
signed by Inigo Jones, the erection of Ashburnham House seems to have
been interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War ; and had these
troubles not occurred, and Inigo Jones had lived to superintend the building
of the mansion, those variations made by Webb, by which Jones's
distinctive note was to some degree lost, would not have been present.
In any case, the magnificent staircase designed by the greater architect,
with its noble cupola and consummate proportions, as well as the
splendid over-doors and other details, were all carefully preserved by
Webb, whose plaster decorations in the cornices and elsewhere were
probably as fine as anything his master would have produced in the same
genre. The mansion appears to have been erected for William Ashburn-
ham, the younger brother of that ' Jack ' Ashburnham famous for his
devotion to Charles I., and the companion of that monarch's flight to the
ASHBURNHAM HOUSE, WESTMINSTER 167
Scotch army and his subsequent escape from Hampton Court to the Isle
of Wight. William was also an officer of distinction in the Royal army
during the civil war, and was rewarded for his loyalty, on the Restoration,
by being made cofferer of the King's Household. He married about 1629,
a near relative, Jane, daughter of John, Lord Butler of Woodhall, who is
described as the " young, beautiful, and rich widow " of James Ley, Earl
of Marlborough, of whom she was the third wife. William Ashburnham
died in 1679, ^^^ ^^^^ having predeceased him in 1672.
I have seen it stated that Ashburnham House was erected for ' Jack '
Ashburnham,^ but no authority is given for this, and I am led to believe that,
as I have stated, William was its builder, from a passage in Pepys's Diary.
It is known that the ground on which the mansion was built belonged to
the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, a lease from which body had first
to be obtained ; now, on May 3, 1667, the diarist was in the company
of Sir Stephen Fox and William Ashburnham, then cofferer to the House-
hold, and drove with them to Westminster, on which occasion Pepys
notes how " the Cofferer " told " us odd stories how he was dealt with by
the men of the Church at Westminster in taking a lease of them at the
King's coming in (viz., the Restoration), and particularly the devilish
coveteousness of Dr. Busby " (the famous head-master of Westminster,
and in 1660 a Prebendary of Westminster). It may be objected that
in this, William Ashburnham was his brother's agent, but I am more
inclined to think that he was acting for himself.
In any case the property passed to John Ashburnham, the grand-
nephew of William who had no children, who was created Lord Ash-
burnham in 1689, and died in 17 10, when he was succeeded in the title
(and the occupancy of the house) by his son, the second Baron, who died
six months after his father. The third Baron, afterwards (1730) created
first Earl, a brother of the second, upon whom thereupon devolved the
family estates, made arrangements to sell the mansion,^ an advertise-
ment to that effect appearing in the London Gazette of January 1729 (new
style) ; and in the following year the lease was purchased by the Crown
for the specific purpose of housing the Royal Libraries, including the
celebrated Cotton Manuscripts which had been purchased for the nation
some twenty years earlier, and had been preserved hitherto in a house in
Essex Street. In the following year, however, on Saturday, October 23, a
disastrous fire occurred here, and destroyed no less than 114 of the
' Britton and Pugin thought so, as do others ; but they all have to confess the difficulty
of tracing records which appear to have been irrevocably lost.
- Peter Wentworth, writing in this year, says : " Lord Barkley told me Lord Ashburnham's
house is to be sold a great penny in Dean's Yard."
1 68 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
948 volumes of which this portion of the collection consisted, besides
badly damaging 98 others. "•
The fire broke out at two o'clock in the morning, in a room immedi-
ately beneath that in which the precious manuscripts were stored.
Dr. Bentley, the King's Librarian was at the time in residence, and
Dr. Freind, the then head-master of Westminster, narrates that he saw
the worthy doctor, arrayed only in his dressing-gown and a wig, rush
from the burning house, with the famous Alexandrian MSS., the Codex
Alexandrinus, in four quarto volumes, under his arms ; although Walcott
affirms that they were carried out of harm's way by Mr. Casley, the Deputy
Librarian. When it is remembered that these precious manuscripts, finely
written on vellum probably about the year 300 to 500 a.d., are supposed
to be the most ancient MS. of the Greek Bible in uncial character extant,
the anxiety of their custodian, whoever he was, for their preservation can
be readily understood. The remainder of the books was only partially
saved, some being removed in their presses bodily, others being thrown
from the windows, and all being more or less damaged by water which was
freely played upon them.
In 1739 part of what remained of Ashburnham House was demolished
for the purpose of erecting two prebendal residences, and the west wing,
now also used as a prebendal house, was alone preserved. This, in its
turn, was threatened with destruction so recently as 1 881, but happily
this iconoclastic step was frustrated. The importance of this preservation
will be recognised when it is known that the existing portion contains
the famous staircase designed by Inigo Jones, as well as a very fine
drawing-room, and the dining-room with its alcove, formerly used as a
state bedroom. The staircase is thus specifically described by Britton
and Pugin : " Of nearly a square shape, with four ranges of steps placed
at right angles one with the other, and as many landings, it was the
passage from the ground to the first floor. Its sides are panelled against
the wall, and guarded by a rising balustrade. The whole is crowned by
an oval dome springing from a bold and enriched entablature supported
by a series of twelve columns. At the landing are fluted Ionic columns." ^
Indeed Sir John Soane thought so highly of the design and propor-
tions of this fine piece of work that he caused careful drawings to be
made of it, with which he illustrated one of the lectures he delivered
before the Royal Academy.
The position of Ashburnham House was on that part of the Bene-
dictine Abbey of Westminster, called the Misericorde, while its garden
' London Past and Present.
' Public Edifices of London, vol. ii. p. 90.
ASHBURNHAM HOUSE, WESTMINSTER 169
looked on to the Refectory. In the cellars were some remains of the old
conventual buildings, and a capital of the time of Edward III. was actually
built into the modern foundations.' In the garden was a small alcove, the
design of which was attributed to Inigo Jones, although Brettingham, in
his book on Architecture, claims it as his own just as he did Kent's design
for Holkham. There are extant a number of views of this once fine
mansion — in Ware's, and Batty Langley's works (the latter of whom first,
in 1737, attributed it to Webb as against the general supposition that it
was wholly the work of Inigo Jones); in Smith's Westminster, and Britton
and Pugin's Public Edifices, while the Society for Photographing Relics
of Old London included some excellent views of it in that valuable series
' Walcott.
CHAPTER VI
APSLEY HOUSE
THERE is no more renowned mansion in the capital than "No. i,
London," as Apsley House has been, appropriately both from its
position and its intrinsic significance, called. For Englishmen
it represents, crystallised in stone, more fully perhaps than any
other dwelling in this country, an idea, a sentiment ; and although we,
as a race, are not overmuch given to the cultivation of abstract qualities
or the worship of mere formulas, yet if we can ever be said to lapse
into such phases of thought, it is to this house that our minds will, I
think, turn, as the spot consecrated to the memory of one who may justly
be termed the saviour of his country.
Little more than fifty years have passed away since the great captain
of the age might have been seen in the fiesh leaving or entering that
stern, uncompromising edifice whose outward appearance presented a
not remote resemblance to the character of its great master ; but even
to-day, when the bustle of life has taken on itself a more pronounced tone,
and we have, as it seems, little time to ponder on the past, the most prosaic
can hardly gaze at those portals without feeling a touch of pride at the
thought that a common kinship binds him to the man with whom its
stones are indissolubly connected — a man whose very presence rendered
security more sure and whose passing seemed to carry with it half the
safety of the nation.
Appropriately enough for other reasons, as it seems, was Apsley House
called " No i, London," for if we look at the old plans of this portion
of the town, we shall see that its site was just at the south-west corner
of that mass of buildings which then constituted the west-end of the
town. Appropriately, too, was this position the residence of the great
captain, for Hyde Park Corner is connected with at least two military
engagements — one, when Sir Thomas Wyatt placed his ordnance here in
1554 ; and the other, when the citizens of London threw up a fort with four
bastions, in anticipation of Charles L's march on the city in 1642.
Close by was the turnpike forming, as it were, the entrance to London
at this point, and beyond it, to the further west, fields, or at most scattered
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APSLEY HOUSE 171
dwellings, were all that met the eye where now vast streets and myriads
of houses form what we are accustomed to term the West-End. Indeed,
in 1787, with slight exceptions, the south of Knightsbridge was as much
open country as Hyde Park to the north, and St. James's and the Green
Parks to the east. It is unnecessary to recapitulate what may be so well
gleaned from Larwood's book and other analogous sources, with regard
to the early history of Hyde Park, of which Apsley House almost forms
an integral part, but it will be interesting to remember that as early as
the days of Cromwell's usurpation, several houses were erected on the
ground now covered by Apsley House to No. i, Hamilton Place. Indeed
the latter thoroughfare takes its name from James Hamilton, who suc-
ceeded the Duke of Gloucester, son of Charles I., in the Rangership
of the Park, at the Restoration, to whom the leases of these houses were
granted ; a grant confirmed to Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton, for the usual
term of ninety-nine years, in 1692. The actual site of Apsley House
itself was for many years occupied by the Ranger's Lodge, and practically
adjoining this was an apple-stall, connected with which site the story
goes that it was given to an old soldier, named Allen, whom the King,
George II., recognised as having fought at the Battle of Dettingen ; possibly
he may have been the very man who stayed the headlong flight of his
Majesty's runaway horse, on which occasion, as we all know, the monarch
dismounted and elected to fight during the rest of the day on foot, ex-
claiming : " For then I know I shan't run away," or words in German or
very broken English, to that effect. Allen and his wife kept the stall,
and, we are to suppose, thrived thereon, for their son became an attorney ;
and in course of time, Allen having died and the apple-stall having fallen
down, it was presumed that the site had reverted to the Crown, or, at
any rate, it was found convenient to suppose so, and it was forthwith
leased to Henry, Lord Apsley, afterwards Lord Bathurst, who proceeded
to erect a house on the site.' But the Crown and Lord Apsley seem
to have reckoned without Mr. Attorney Allen, who put in a claim for
compensation and unlawful ejectment. So successfully did he make out his
claim, too, that, after much negotiation, it was arranged that the very
considerable sum of ^^450 per annum ground rent should be awarded
him. As there was a well-known saying at the time that here was " a
suit by one old woman against another, and the Chancellor (Lord
Bathurst was Chancellor from 177 1-8) has been beaten in his own court,"
it would appear that the widow Allen was the protagonist in the struggle,
' Among the Adam drawings, preserved in the Soane Museum, are details of certain
decorative work which Adam executed here for Lord Bathurst. The ceiling of the Portico
Room is part of the Adam designs, and the arms of the Bathursts are still to be seen there.
172 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
and her son, the attorney, her legal adviser. The inference that the
Chancellor was " an old woman " gives point to a well-known story.
His father. Pope's friend, was a jovial old fellow, and on one occasion,
when nearly ninety, having some friends to dine with him, he was urged
by his son to retire to rest, which he resolutely refused to do, and when
his son had himself withdrawn, he said to his cronies : " Come, my good
friends, since the old gentleman is gone to bed, I think we may venture
to crack another bottle."
That Lord Bathurst was one of the least distinguished of those who
have filled the high office of Lord Chancellor, is attested by Lord
Campbell who, in his lives of those dignitaries, goes so far as to consider
the erection of Apsley House as the most notable act of his life ; his
portrait by Brown certainly does not give any particular evidence either
of distinction or intelligence, although the many high offices his Lordship
held at various times ought to have been a guarantee of his attainments
being far above the average.
There is extant a drawing showing Hyde Park as it appeared in 1750,
with the cottage and apple-stall in front of it, and the adjoining tene-
ments on the site of which Apsley House now stands, as well as the old
wooden gates of the Park, which were replaced, in 1828, by the beautifully
designed screen and gates of Decim.us Burton ; only three years after
which alteration the old toll gate close by had been sold by auction in
pursuance of an Act of Parliament which had been passed abolishing
certain toUs.^
Apsley House was erected, in red brick, from the designs of the Adam
brothers, and occupied some seven years (177 1-8, or during the exact
period of Lord Apsley's tenure of the Lord Chancellorship) in its con-
struction. Considering the renown ' of its architects it cannot be said to
have greatly added to the artistic features of the metropolis ; but it was,
as may be seen in the drawing taken of it in 1800, which is in the Crace
collection, commodious, and the excellence of its situation is undeniable.
It remained in its original form till 1828, when the stone front and
portico were added, as well as the picture-gallery and rooms under,
and the mansion wholly encased under the direction of Sir Geoffrey
WyatviUe. But before that date three notable events had occurred in
' A woodcut of this sale is given in Hone's Everyday Book. But although the toll was done
away with here it seems to have been merely transferred to Albert Gate, where it flourished for
many years.
' If the story be true which avers that Lord Bathurst was his own architect, and found that
he had omitted to provide for a staircase from the second to the third floor, the Adams can
only be considered as superintending, and very indifTerently superintending, the erection of the
building.
APSLEY HOUSE 173
its history ; one was the death of its builder, Lord Bathurst, in 1794 ; ^
the other, the sale of the property by his son, the third Earl, to the Marquis
Wellesley, in 1810; the last and most important, its resale by the Marquis,
in 1820, to his younger and more famous brother, Arthur Wellesley, who
had been created Duke of Wellington six years previously.^ It was the last-
named who carried out the improvements already referred to, making
certain important additions which included the famous Waterloo Gallery,
and other apartments on the west side of the house. Ten years later the
Duke purchased the Crown's interest in the property for ^^95 30; the
Crown reserving the right to forbid the erection of any other house or
houses on the site.
One of the best remembered additions made to the house by the
great Duke, were the Bramah bullet-proof shutters to the windows of
the Waterloo Gallery, which were placed there on account of the mob's
breaking these windows during the Reform Bill riots of 183 1. The circum-
stances of this indignity to a national hero — this example of " benefits
forgot," have been well given by Gleig, in his life of Wellington :
" The Duke was not in his place in the House of Lords," says his
biographer, " on that memorable day when the King went down to
dissolve Parliament. He had been in attendance for some time pre-
viously, at the sick bed of the Duchess, and she expired just as the Park
guns began to fire. He was, therefore, ignorant of the state into which
London had fallen, till a surging crowd swept up from Westminster to
Piccadilly, shouting, and yelling, and offering violence to all whom they
suspected of being Anti-Reformers. By-and-by volleys of stones came
crashing through the windows at Apsley House, breaking them to pieces
and doing injury to more than one valuable picture in the gallery. The
Duke bore the outrage as well as he could, but determined never to run
a similar risk again. He guarded his windows, as soon as quiet was re-
stored, with iron shutters, and left them there to the day of his death,
a standing memento of a nation's ingratitude." Wellington's remark
a fropos of these shutters is well known. " They shall remain where
they are," he said, " as a monument of the gullibility of the mob, and the
worthlessness of that sort of popularity for which they who give it can
assign no good reason. I don't blame the men who broke my windows.
They only did what they were instigated to do by others who ought to
have known better. But if any one be disposed to grow giddy with
' In 1789, when Queen Charlotte and the Princesses came to London from Kew, to see the
illuminations on the occasion of George lll.'s recovery, they stayed at Apsley House.
2 In the Court Guide the Marquis Wellesley is given as residing here in 1815, and in the
next year the Duke is entered as owner, but although he would seem to have lived here,
possibly renting the place, he did not actually purchase it till 1820.
174 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
popular applause, I think a glance towards these iron shutters will soon
sober him."
In connection with these riots, a curious circumstance is mentioned
by Lord Stanhope, in his Notes of Conversations with the Duke of
Wellington : " The Duke," writes Stanhope, " was one day sitting in his
room at Apsley House when a stone passed over his head, having broken
first a pane in the window, and then breaking another in the glass book-
case along the wall. In this instance, having the position of the two
broken panes to go by, they were able to calculate the line of the stone,
and they reckoned that the person flinging it must have stood nearly as
far oflf as Stanhope Street." A good throw, indeed !
Wellington was hardly the man to forget the treatment he received at
this time, or to overestimate the value of popular applause or disappro-
bation ; and although what he is reported to have said at the time
may be the correct version, the following extract from Raikes's Journal
would seem to indicate that he considered the mob as a whole had some-
thing more to do with the breaking of his windows than merely to fulfil
the wishes of its leaders : " Some time afterwards, when he had regained
all his popularity, and began to enjoy that great and high reputation
which he now, it is to be hoped, will carry to the grave, he was riding
up Constitution Hill, in the Park, followed by an immense mob, who
were cheering him in every direction ; he heard it all with the most
stoical indifference, never putting his horse out of a walk, or seeming to
regard them, till he leisurely arrived at Apsley House, when he stopped
at the gate, turned round to the rabble, and then pointing with his finger
to the iron blinds which still closed the windows, he made them a
sarcastic bow, and entered the court without saying a word."
Of the innumerable great entertainments, political meetings, dinners,
receptions, &c., which took place at Apsley House during the life of
the " great Duke," it is unnecessary to make specific mention ; nor could
a chapter contain the names of the great ones who came here as his guests :
the record of these functions is to be found in the innumerable diaries
and letters of the period. But one of them claims, and justly claims, a
word ; I mean the Waterloo Banquet, which every year, on the anni-
versary of that fateful day, was given by the Duke. The room in which
this dinner was held is that looking on to Hyde Park, whose windows,
seven in number, are still pointed out to strangers and the few Londoners
who are ignorant of their historic interest. Here, on the anniversary of
the 1 8th June 1815, in every year during Wellington's Hfe, were gathered
together the officers who fought on and survived the field of Waterloo.
The well-known engraving published by Messrs. Moon, Boys, & Graves,
APSLEY HOUSE 175
perpetuates the brilliant scene, with the hero of a hundred fights its
central figure and all the chivalry of the country gathered around him.
Then was used the magnificent service of Sevres presented to the Duke
by Louis XVIII. ; then, the Silver Plateau given him by the people of
Portugal and presented by the Regent of that country ; while on the
sideboard ghttered the superb silver gilt shield designed by Stothard,
which the Merchants and Bankers of London had offered to the great
leader who had kept intact the safety and honour of the capital.
Before anything is said of the treasures with which Apsley House is
filled, it will be interesting to note one or two circumstances connected
with it ; thus it is a curious fact that the Duke was never known to refer
to it either in conversation or by letter, as Apsley House ; during his
life-time it was regarded as " Wellington's House " — and such a title
was properly deemed a sufficient indication. It is also interesting to
know that the bullet-proof shutters were removed in 1856, four years
after the Duke's death ; while the screen in front of the door, which
Wellington had had erected to hide him from the crowd that was used
to assemble to see him mount his horse, was taken down by the second
Duke, who said that " he was sure no crowd would assemble to see
him get on his horse." The well-known appearance of the great Duke,
in his habitual blue coat and white duck trousers, must not be forgotten,
as no one who once saw it can forget it. I know a dear old clergyman,
one of whose most cherished memories is that on one occasion he guided
the great man across the road, and received from him in recognition a
touch of the hat and a " thank'ee, thank'ee," which, such is the power
of genius, is as clearly heard in that old parson's ears as if it had been
uttered yesterday. Lord EUesmere records too, how he met the Duke
one day and how " he walked slow and stopped often to expatiate. Re-
cognition and reverence of all as usual. Hats were taken off ; passers
made excuse for stopping to gaze. Young surgeons on the steps of St.
George's Hospital forgot their lecture and their patients, and even the
butcher's boy pulled up his cart, as he stopped at the gate of Apsley
House."
Indeed he was such an institution that people were used to gather
together in front of his dwelling, to await his entrance or exit ; country
cousins were taken to its vicinity, on the chance of seeing the " sights
self " ; omnibus drivers took pride in pointing out his residence, and if
in luck's way the great man in -propria persona ; shopkeepers ran to their
doors as he passed, and all the world from the peer to the postman saluted
him ; he was indeed, as Carlyle says of Frederick, " every inch a king,"
and like the great Prussian presented himself in a Spartan simplicity of
176 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
vestment which caught the popular imagination far more than could the
regal panoply.
It is for such memories that Apsley House ^ may well be considered
the most important of those private palaces with which I am dealing.
Although the whole of Apsley House is reminiscent of the great figure
that dominates its every chamber, there are two rooms — the largest and
one of the smallest — which are particularly connected with it ; and in
these two rooms are reflected the varied characteristics that chiefly
embody in our minds the qualities of the great Duke : his pre-eminent
genius as a commander, and his inherent simplicity of taste and manner ;
his " transcendent fame," and his innate modesty. The one is the great
Waterloo Gallery ; the other, the bedroom which he habitually used.
No greater antithesis could well be imagined than that furnished by these
two apartments — the one small and ill-lighted, with its iron bedstead, so
small, by-the-bye, that some one once observed to the Duke that there was
no room to turn in it, to which the great man replied : " When I want
to turn in bed I know it is time to turn out " ; the other, magnificent in
proportion, superb in decoration, and lighted not only by its seven
windows looking out on the finest prospect in London, but also illumi-
nated by the wonders of pictorial art which hang on its walls, and made
more gorgeous by a hundred beautiful treasures scattered about it.
Here hangs Van Dyck's Charles I.— a replica of the well-known picture
in the Royal Collection, which was bought by Lord Cowley in Spain,
and is generally supposed to have been presented by Charles L to
Philip IV. ; here are two portraits by Sir Antonio More, and a delightful
Wouvermans, " The Return from the Chase," mentioned with much
praise by Waagen. No fewer than seven Velasquezs of great power and
beauty are included in the pictures that grace the gallery, four of which
were among those taken in Joseph Bonaparte's carriage after the battle of
Vittoria. One of these, " The Water-Carrier," is said to have been pro-
duced by the great Spaniard when he was but twenty ; he had found
himself even thus early, and how surely ! This fine picture is the chef-
d'oeuvre of that class of work — kitchen and tavern scenes after the manner
of the Dutch masters, which constituted Velasquez's first independent
excursion into artistic activity. The painter took it with him, says Sir
Walter Armstrong, when he went to Madrid, and on the completion of
the palace of Buen Retiro, it was selected to form part of the decorations
of one of the rooms. Later it found a home in the new Bourbon Palace,
and together with the famous Correggio, it was carried away by Joseph
' It may be noted that further alterations, other than those I have noted, were made to tlie
house in 1853, under the direction of Philip Hardwick, the architect.
APSLEY HOUSE 177
Bonaparte in his flight after Vittoria. Together with its companion
canvas it was sent by WelHngton to Ferdinand, who begged the conqueror's
acceptance of both works. Sir Walter Armstrong, in noting the simpHcity
and fideHty of the work, remarks that its striking effect is produced by
the easy and natural juxtaposition of the three heads — that of the water-
seller himself, who stands before a rough table, his left hand on the great
stoppered jar at his side, and in his right a glass goblet ; and those of his
two boyish customers, one of whom is just taking the glass of water from
the hands of the Aguador}
The other works by Velasquez are portraits and landscapes ; one of
them, a presentment of Pope Innocent X., is supposed to be the study
for the picture in the Doria Pamfili Palace. The still powerful and
vigorous, if sinister features of Innocent, probably one of the ugliest men
of his day, were just those to which such an artist as Velasquez was able
to do the fullest justice ; and even if it were the case that the then
Cardinal's coarse and sensual features were seriously urged as a reason for
his not receiving the Tiara, and were given by Guido to the Satan in his
St. Michael, still they afforded Velasquez the opportunity of producing
one of his most remarkable portraits. Sir Walter Armstrong, indeed,
goes so far as to affirm that by the side of this picture, even the Leo X.
of Raphael, to say nothing of that master's Julius II., seems lifeless and
wooden ; the work at Apsley House presents us simply with the head and
bust of the Pope — whereas the Doria Pamfili picture is almost full length,
and shows the hands, one of which is holding a paper, to be full of power
and character. Another portrait is that of the poet Quevedo — with his
unornamental and prodigious — we can but hope useful — ^horn spectacles
Quevedo had injured his sight by incessant application to study in his
youth, which necessitated the use of these spectacles. The picture in
question shows him wearing a dark doublet on which is sewn the cross of
Santiago, and was thus probably painted before the poet fell into disgrace,
and still filled the post of secretary to the King. Another splendid
example of this great master, is the picture of two boys at a table, one of
whom with his back to the spectator is drinking, while the other faces
him ; there is also a portrait of a Spanish gentleman, and two vigorous
landscapes from the same hand, one of the latter being a view of
Pampeluna, the capital of Navarre, which was purchased by the first
Duke, in 1844, from the Brackenbury collection. Then perhaps above
all, there is a small but perfect Correggio — " Christ in the Garden of
' Velasquez, by Sir Walter Armstrong.
- Formerly in Lady Stuart's collection, and bought by the Duke from Smith, of Bond
Street, for £\o'-„ at the suggestion of Lord Ellesmere.
M
«
1 78 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Gethsemane," of which Vasari was so enthusiastic that he specifically
speaks of it when he saw it at Reggio, as " la piu Bella cosa che si fossa
vedere di suo^'' a verdict substantially re-echoed by all later judges.
The head of Christ with the single ray of light which falls upon it,
is extraordinarily fine ; and the arrangement by which the light is
reflected from the white robe of the central figure on to the disciples in
the middle distance, is a tour de force ; while, notwithstanding that the
work is finished with the utmost minuteness, there is a breadth of treat-
ment in it which makes it a masterpiece of draughtsmanship and chiaro-
scuro. There is a tradition that this thing of beauty was painted to pay
a debt of four scudi which Correggio owed to an apothecary — lucky man
of drugs ! It was, however, soon after sold for five hundred scudi. The
picture belonged to Joseph Bonaparte and had previously been in the
gallery of the Princess of the Asturias, at Madrid, where Mengs saw it.'
After Vittoria, it was found in the King's travelling carriage together,
as we have seen, with the Velasquez. Waagen, who criticises very fully,
with the utmost admiration this beautiful work, notes that it must at
one time have been much exposed to the sun or other heat, as the colour
has everywhere shrunk considerably, but that otherwise it was in an ex-
cellent state of preservation when he saw it.
The great Duke so greatly treasured this picture that Gurwood once
told Haydon, that he kept the key of the glass which covered it himself,
and that when the glass was dusty he cleaned it with his handkeixhief.
Once Gurwood asked the Duke to let him have the key, to which the
emphatic reply was " No, I won't."
Another very beautiful picture hanging in the gallery is " The Virgin
and Child," by Luini, which was once in the Royal Spanish collection,
before Joseph Bonaparte lost it after Vittoria in trying to carry it away.
This fine work has been attributed to Andrea del Sarto, and even to the
great Leonardo himself, to whose manner it has a remarkable resem-
blance. Very noticeable, too, is Tintoretto's three-quarter length por-
trait of Cicogna, Doge of Venice, seated on a red throne, which the great
Duke bought from the Dennys collection, in 1845.
There are here two presentments of Caterina Cornaro, the famous
Queen of Cyprus, one from the brush of Paul Veronese, the other by
Titian. The former is supposed to be the picture which was purchased
by Mr. King, at the sale of Beckford's collection in 1823, for the ridiculous
» Waagen states that it was engraved so early as 1 560, by Custi. The well-known rendering
of the same subject in the National Gallery, although stated to be a replica, has by some
critics been considered as a fine copy of the original, made by Lodovico Carracci. There are
also copies at Florence and Dresden. Archdeacon Coxe states that a beautiful and faithful
copy was painted by John Jackson, R.A.
APSLEY HOUSE 179
sum of sixteen guineas. A little over twenty years later the Duke bought
it from Mr. Graves, for ;^I05.
Among the other Titians in the gallery is the portrait of his mistress,
three-quarter length and life size, and a Danae, both of which were among
the pictures taken from Joseph Bonaparte's traveUing carriage after the
battle of Vittoria.
Turning to the Murillos, special mention must be made of the " Old
Woman eating Porridge," for which the Duke gave ^250 ; " St. Francis of
Assisi receiving the Stigmata " ; " Isaac blessing Jacob," and his " St.
Catherine," all of which came from Spain, among the Vittoria booty.
Then there is a fine " St. Catherine of Alexandria," by Claudio Coello ;
and Spagnoletto's " Peter Repentant " ; a " St. John the Baptist " ; a half-
length portrait of Santiago (St. James), and particularly a gruesome
but powerful work by the same master called " La Carcasse," where the
skeleton of a huge monster is drawn by nude figuus.
In this wonderfully representative gathering of fine works, it is im-
possible to do more than merely name some of the subjects and their
painters ; nor is, in this case, more needed, for an elaborate catalogue
was prepared some years ago by Evelyn, Duchess of WelUngton, in which
each work is fully described and in many instances reproduced. But
what a wealth of pictorial art is to be seen hanging on the walls of the
gaUery alone may be imagined when I state that Leonardo da Vinci,
with a " Virgin and Child " ; Claude with two landscapes of great beauty ;
Carlo Cignani, with a " Venus and Adonis " ; Parmegiano with a " Marriage
of St. Catherine " ; Carlo Dolci, with an " Ecce Homo," and Guercino
with a " Mars," are all represented. Then there is a battle piece full of
action by Salvator Rosa, and a delightful " Holy Family," by Sassoferrato ;
as well as a " Virgin and Child " by Guilio Romano, of such power
and beauty that Benjamin West once, bracketing it with the lovely
Correggio, remarked that they should be framed in diamonds, and that
it was worth fighting a battle for them alone !
Besides these, and how many others, the number of splendid examples
of the Dutch and Flemish schools is extraordinary. There are the " Holy
Family," by Rubens, and a landscape by Johannes Vermeer ; Vandyck's
" Magdalen with Angels " ; and " The Colbert Family on Horseback," by
Van der Meulen ; a pair of Wouvermans, one, " The Return from the
Chase," and the other " The Departure of a Hawking Party," both very
fine examples, and " A Grey Horse and Cavalier," by Cuyp, which the
Duke bought from the Lapeyriere collection in 1817, and which was
exhibited at the British Institution in the following year, and in the
Old Masters as recently as 1890; Breughel's "Travellers Crossing a
i8o THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Ford," and " A Man's Head," by Ferdinand Bol ; while besides these are
examples of the work of Van der Neer, from the Royal Spanish collection,
and not this time one of his usual moonlight effects, but " Boys with a
Trapped Bird " ; Terborch with the " Signing the Peace of Westphalia,"
which curiously enough used to hang in the very room in which the Treaty
of Paris was signed in 1814, having once belonged to Talleyrand;
Poelenburg ; David Teniers, both the elder and the younger, of whom
there are several examples ; Duyster, Pieter Gysels, and Elsheimer,
while there is one Enghsh picture, in this case one of Sir Joshua's rare
landscapes, " The Flight into Egypt," which came from the Northwich
collection, in 1859.
In what is called the Piccadilly Drawing-Room — the apartment with
its windows over the porch facing Piccadilly, hang a number of Teniers.
One of these pictures is small, being only ten inches broad by six inches
in height, and yet within that tiny compass no less than thirty figures,
painted with the delicacy of a miniature, are hit off with a verve and
spirit that Meissonier, who so powerfully combined breadth and finish,
might have envied. The picture bears the date of 1655, and Waagen
is my authority for stating that it was purchased at the sale of the
Lapeyriere collection, in 18 17, for 5550 francs.
This room might well be called the Dutch Room, for nearly all the
pictures in it had their origin in the land of dykes. For instance there
is Backhuysen's " Embarkation of De Ruyter," which the Duke pur-
chased from the Le Rouge collection, in 181 8, and for which he paid
^880 ; and Brouwer's " Boers Smoking," another of Wellington's pur-
chases, having been bought at the Lapeyriere sale for ^96, on which
occasion, among many other purchases, the Duke secured Ostade's " Game
of Gallet," for ;^2i8 ; and Mieris's " Cavaliers Drinking," for ^100.
Of the two Van der Heydens, that representing a view on the Vecht,
a particularly fine work, cost but ^216 in the Le Rouge sale, and Nicholas
Maes's " The Listener," so full of expression, and so consummate in the
management of its black and red harmonies, was actually secured at the
same time for ^64 !
There are three Jan Steens in this room ; one of them, the famous
" Sick Lady," came from the Lapeyriere collection, and was extraordinarily
cheap at the ^£456 which the Duke gave for it ; while Gaspar Netscher's
" The Toilet," if it can be believed, cost but ^36 at the same dispersal.
Besides these, there are Van der Velde's " Vessels in a Calm," and
Abraham Storck's " Ships in a River " ; a hunting scene by Paul Bril,
and a landscape with St. Hubert, by the same painter ; as well as a pair
of Linglebach's landscapes ; and the " Rape of Proserpine," by Nicholas
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APSLEY HOUSE i8i
Verkolie, the son of Jan Verkolie, and a Van Huysum; which was once in
the Le Rouge Gallery ; while examples are here of the work of Karl du
Jardin and De Hoogh ; Dietrich, and Moucheron.
The library contains a rather indifferent picture of the once cele-
brated lion tamer, Van Amburgh in his cage, by Landseer, of which
Waagen, although he says the animals are executed in a masterly manner,
justly criticises the theatrical and common presentment of Van Amburgh,
as " by no means doing credit to his kind," ^ and in the Portico Room
hangs the well-known " Chelsea Pensioners " of Wilkie. This masterly
and characteristic work, with its varied expressions of interest, excitement,
and humour, was painted for the Duke in 1822 ; the great man paying
the price agreed on — 1200 guineas in bank notes. Haydon prints the
letter in which Wilkie describes the visit of the Duke to his studio
on August 17, 1816, in company with several friends. " At last," says
the artist, " Lady Argyle began to tell me that the Duke wished me to
paint him a picture, and was explaining what the subject was, when the
Duke, who was at that time seated on a chair and looking at one of the
pictures that happened to be on the ground, turned to us, and swinging
back upon the chair turned up his lively eye to me and said that
the subject should be a parcel of old soldiers assembled together on
their seats at the door of a public-house, chewing tobacco and talking
over their old stories. He thought they might be in any uniform, and
that it should be at some public-house in the King's Road, Chelsea."
With some further suggestions, from which Wilkie told the Duke a
beautiful picture ought to be evolved, the great man left the studio,
and the chair he had sat on was immediately singled out and decorated
with ribbons by the painter's proud family.
In the same room at Apsley House is also to be seen the picture by
Burnet, for which the Duke paid the painter 500 guineas, and which was
executed as a companion to the " Chelsea Pensioners " ; it represents
" Greenwich Pensioners receiving the News of the Battle of Trafalgar " ;
while here also hang a portrait of Pitt by Hoppner ; Lady Lyndhurst,
by Wilkie ; Spencer Percival, by Joseph ; and a portrait of Reynolds by
himself ; besides which are examples of MuriUo and Albano ; Annibale
Caracci and Andrea del Sarto ; Wouvermans and Watteau, so that a note
of catholicity is struck here, as in nearly all the rooms in the mansion.
Another room — named, from the prevailing tone of its decoration,
the Small Yellow Drawing Room — contains one or two pictures of intrinsic
interest rather than of artistic worth ; although when I state that one
' The Duke is said to have suggested this picture, and to have read to the painter the verse
in Genesis in which dominion is given to Adam over the beasts of the field.
1 82 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
of them is WilHe's portrait of William IV., painted in 1833, and
presented to the Duke by the King, it will be recognised that one of
them at least cannot be said to wholly lack value as a work of art.
This picture, which shows us the King habited in the uniform of the
Grenadier Guards, was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and although
attracting attention was somewhat thrown into the shade by the same
painter's remarkable presentment of the Duke of Sussex, which was at
the time described as " the first of all modern portraits for truth and
character and harmonious brightness of colour." '
Among other works in this room, there is an elaborate and curious
picture of the " Animals entering the Ark," by Breughal and Van Kessell ;
and the well-known and much engraved " Illicit Still," by Landseer ;
as well as the same painter's picture of Napoleon's famous charger,
" Moscow," and a number of military scenes by De Fontaine, one of
which represents Napoleon crossing the Danube before the battle of
Essling. An incident in one of Wellington's campaigns is also repre-
sented here, in T. J. Barker's picture of the Duke writing for reinforce-
ments at the Bridge of Sauroren. For the rest there are a number of
portraits hanging in this apartment, among which are two of Napoleon
by Lef^vre, two of Josephine by the same painter, and one of the great
Duke himself.
A large picture of George IV., by Wilkie, represents the King in
Highland dress ; " a very stately figure, of astonishing force and effect
of colour," is Waagen's comment. This portrait was presented by the
monarch to the Duke, and used formerly to hang in the Small Drawing
Room, but is now in the Dining Room in company with presentments
of Francis II. of Austria, WilHam III. of Prussia, and WilHam I. of
Holland ; Louis XVIII. , and Alexander I. of Russia, both by Baron Gerard,
among others most of which were either painted for the Duke, or pre-
sented to him by the various sovereigns, the safety of whose kingdoms
and the perpetuation of whose lines as reigning families, he did so much
to secure.
Although not of course artistically interesting, yet having a certain
value of their own, if only to show that the great Duke appreciated
art in its most perfect form, and must have exercised much self-
restraint in refraining from carrying away many masterpieces which his
rdle as conqueror placed at his disposal, are the four copies of Raphael's
works, " The Spasimo," " La Madonna del Pesce," " The Pearl," and
" The Visitation," hanging in Apsley House, which Wellington com-
missioned Bonnemaison to reproduce while they were in Paris. They
' "Sir David Wilkie," by Mollett.
APSLEY HOUSE 183
are interesting copies of these celebrated pictures, but hardly of the
artistic excellence of another copy at Apsley House, that of the " Madonna
della Sedia," which is readily understandable when we know that in this
case the copyist is supposed to have been no less a master than Guilio
Romano.
The portraits at Apsley House are generally interesting, rather from
the individuals represented than from the fame of their painters, although
in several cases there is a satisfactory combination of both attractions.
Here is John, Duke of Marlborough, solemnly hanging in the house of
the commander who rivalled him in military glory, and far out-distanced
him in integrity ; here is Pitt — the greater son of a great father — who
did so much to make many of those victories possible and to further en-
hance that military glory ; and here is Mr. Arbuthnot, the lifelong friend
of the Duke, who died at Apsley House in apartments especially assigned
to him by his old friend ; when one looks at that portrait it is difficult
to forget the pathetic anxiety of the Duke during Mr. Arbuthnot's last
illness, and the occasion when the doctor had uttered the patient's doom,
and the great Duke, almost breaking down, seized his hand and gazing
into his face exclaimed : " No, no ; he's not very ill, not very bad —
he'll get better. It's only his stomach that's out of order. He'll not
die." '
Here, too, we have Elizabeth, Duchess of Wellington, painted by
Gambardella ; while many of Wellington's comrades in arms are, of course,
represented ; Lord Beresford, Lord Lynedoch, and Lord Anglesey, all
perpetuated by the brush of Lawrence ; Blucher is here in the city he
would, mutatis mutandis, have liked to sack ; and Alava, who fought
under the Duke in the Peninsular War, and was afterwards Ambassador
in London ; so is Soult whom Wellington met under such varied circum-
stances ; and Pope Pius VH., whom Napoleon ordered from Rome to
crown him, and at the crucial moment snatched the imperial diadem
from the trembling pontiff's hands, and put it on himself.
Beechey painted the portrait of Nelson which is here. We all know
the story of how the great sea-captain and the hero of a hundred fights
met once — in Pitt's waiting-room — and did not know each other ! Lord
Castlereagh, who committed suicide and drew down some of Shelley's
most bitter invectives, and who was said to have been the most noticeable
figure at the Congress of Vienna, because he was the only diplomatist
present who wore no orders, may also be seen ; as may Spencer Perceval,
whom Bellingham did to death in the lobby of the House ; and here,
too, is Colonel Gurwood, who edited the despatches of the Duke — those
' Gleig.
1 84 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
extraordinary examples of military knowledge, patient industry, and
untiring activity.
Most of these portraits hang in the Yellow Drawing Room, and with
them are many others of " Wellington's men," mostly from the brush
of Pieneman, such as Sir John Elley, Ponsonby, and Sir Colin Campbell,
the last being the original sketch for the figure in the large Waterloo
picture now at Amsterdam, and signed "J. W. P., Apsley House, 1821 ";
Viscount Hill and Lord E. Somerset ; Lord Seaton and Lord Raglan ;
General Fremantle and Sir Colin Halkett ; Sir George Cooke and Col.
Thornhill ; while there is a fine portrait of Lord Combermere by Hayter ;
Joseph Bonaparte by Baron Gerard ; and the Duke himself by Gambar-
della, a copy of Lawrence's picture, and also by C. R. Leslie. And,
appropriately in the midst of this military picture-gallery, hangs Sir
W. Allan's " Waterloo," representing the field as it appeared at 7.30 p.m.,
when Napoleon made his last desperate effort to retrieve his falling
fortunes and Ney, bravest of the brave, led on foot the Old Guard to
their last fruitless attack, of which picture the Duke once remarked :
" Good — very good — not too much smoke."
Some family portraits hang in the Lower Drawing Room, including
a particularly fine one of the first Lord Cowley by Hoppner ; Lawrence's
Lady WeUesley, and Lady Worcester, and Hoppner's well-known group
of Lady Anne Fitzroy, afterwards Lady Anne CuUing-Smith, with her
two daughters, Anne CaroHne and Georgina Fredericka Fitzroy, who
was afterwards the Lady Worcester of Lawrence's picture.
But it is not only in the Reception Rooms that this wealth of pictorial
art is to be seen ; for on the Staircase, in the Vestibule, the Corridor,
the Entrance Halls, even in the Basement, a number of works hang in
bewildering profusion ; battle pieces by Courtois ; genre pictures by Peter
de Hoogh, and Caravaggio, (" The Gamblers," once belonging to Joseph
Bonaparte) ; Haydon's heroic sketch of the Duke when in his seventy-first
year, and, particularly noticeable, Jan Steen's remarkable " Egg Dance,"
which WelHngton purchased at the Le Rouge sale, in 1818, for ;^l2o!
Among these contemporaries we find here and there older historical
figures ; Henri Quatre, with his pleasant face — one wonders whether
thinking of his ideal peasant with his chicken in the pot, or of the
beautiful eyes of Gabrielle d'Estr^es ; the Prince de Conde, Rocroi
hovering in our thoughts, and Louis XIV.'s royal word, " Don't hurry,
cousin ; when one is laden with laurels one cannot walk fast " ; and the
" Roi Soleil " himself in all the glory of robe and wig which Thackeray
so wickedly stripped from him to present us with a little, bald-headed,
weak-kneed old man, hobbling with a stick. Here, too, is another
APSLEY HOUSE 185
Bourbon, who owed so much — his kingdom, perhaps his life — to the Duke
— Charles X., the once gay Comte d'Artois of Louis Seize's court. This
is the picture which, as he once gazed at it, gave occasion for Wellington
to compare its subject with our James II. ; " when one reads Mazure's
book, one is much struck at the many points of likeness," he told Lord
Stanhope, " and yet what is very curious is — and I know it for a positive
fact — that they ordered the book to be written on purpose to show that
there was no likeness at all." ^ Other portraits of the various monarchs
of Europe who all owed something to the Duke are here, and half-a-dozen
of the colossus — Napoleon — he overthrew.
In the Library, nearly all the wall-space of which is covered by book-
cases containing many of the works that the great Duke was wont to
consult, there still stands the oval-topped writing desk at which he sat
and penned those short and emphatic notes, or as often sent cheques
and bank-notes to deserving cases, part of that splendid generosity of
which few knew the extent except, perhaps, Gurwood, who once told
Haydon that he saw the great man sealing up envelope after envelope
containing money which was to bring joy to many a starving household.
Lawrence's portrait of the third Earl Bathurst hangs in the Garden
Room, formerly the great Duke's bedroom ; in the Dining Room is
that of Lady Charlotte Greville by Hoppner, as well as R. Lawrence's
sketch of the Duke's famous charger, " Copenhagen," and the " Storming
of Seringapatam " by Stothard.
The great English sculptors are perhaps better represented than its
painters ; for example, there is Steell's bust of Wellington himself ;
Chantrey's Castlereagh and Wellington ; Pitt by NoUekens, as well as
busts of Perceval, Ponsonby, Gurwood, &c. Canova is represented by
his colossal statue of Napoleon which stands at the foot of the staircase,
and which the Prince Regent presented to the Duke, in 1817. Here is
that extraordinary man in an apotheosis of glory — crowned with laurel,
holding in one hand a sceptre and in the other a figure of victory ! Here
he stands amidst the penates of one who tore victory from his grasp and
shattered his dream of dominion ! Surely others besides Waagen in
viewing this satire on earthly greatness have been " filled for awhile with
melancholy thoughts." This remarkable work is eleven feet high, and
is said, with the exception of the left arm, to have been cut from a single
block of marble, and the sculptor was able to cut a statuette of Hebe
from beneath the right arm of the figure ! Another example of Canova's
work is the bust of Pauline Borghese — that heroine of so many stories —
whom the sculptor, it will be remembered, considered the most perfect
' Stanhopes Conversations with Wellington.
1 86 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
example of beauty in face and figure then alive. Rauch's great statue
of Blucher at Breslau is here to be seen copied in little ; while the
same sculptor's bust of the Emperor Nicholas also stands here. Besides
which there are a number of antique busts and figures ; Marcus Aurelius,
and Servianus ; Alexander, and Lucius Verus, and Vitellius, to mention
but these ; and there is also a head of Charles I., which is attributed to
Bernini.
Many of the most interesting and valuable artistic treasures preserved
at Apsley House, were presents to the great Duke from the various sove-
reigns of Europe and others who recognised how much their safety and
that of their peoples was due to his consummate mastery in the art of
war. Thus the magnificent service of Sevres came from Louis XVIIL
— perhaps from so well-known a gastronome, a not inappropriate gift ;
the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia both helped to fill the
Duke's China Room with priceless porcelain ; the King of Saxony's con-
tribution was a magnificent Dresden dessert service, painted with scenes
depicting the Duke's victories in India, the Peninsula, and at Waterloo.
The silver plateau which the Regent of Portugal, on behalf of the people
of that country, sent to Wellington is no less than thirty feet long by
as many wide, and is lighted by lo6 wax tapers ; while the Corporation
of London's gift took the appropriate form of three silver candelabra —
each representing a foot soldier life size. Here, too, are to be seen the
superb Waterloo vase which the merchants and bankers of London gave
the Duke, and more noticeable than all the Wellington shield — a master-
piece of design and execution, which formed a national gift, and was
completed in 1822, at a cost of £jooo. The work, as is well known,
was designed by Stothard, who took Flaxman's shield of Achilles as a
general idea for the design. He had but three weeks in which to read
up the history of Wellington's campaigns for embodiment in the scheme
of the work, and his biographer, Mrs. Bray, well says that " to any other
than genius of the highest order, perfected by long practice, the task to
be performed in so short a time would have been impossible." Stothard
always thought that, although less costly, a bronze shield would have
been a richer and more classical material for his design The Duke called
on the artist and examined his drawings and the etchings he had made
from them, and he both carefully analysed each design and made such
criticisms as they suggested to him. It is needless to expatiate on the
history of these designs, nor shall I give any minute description of the
shield, as such descriptions are generally not only tedious but very frequently
fail to convey any adequate idea of the subject ; but I may at least state
generally the nature of Stothard's conception ; which was, the Duke on
APSLEY HOUSE 187
horseback in the centre, surrounded by his more illustrious officers, Fame
crowning the hero, and at his feet Anarchy, Discord, and Tyranny over-
come. The arrangement by which the evolutions of the horses within
a circle are arranged — all emanating from the centre — is most effective
and original. The border of the shield is formed in ten compartments
— each representing a salient incident in the Duke's military career.
The shield is 3 feet 8 inches in diameter, and the columns which stand
by its side, and were designed by Smirke, stand 4 feet 3 inches high.
I must not omit to mention among the more notable presents of
which the Duke was the recipient, the two candelabra of Russian
porphyry, 12 feet high, given by the Emperor Alexander, and the pair
of vases of Swedish porphyry presented by the King of Sweden. But
although these rich and beautiful objects cannot fail to have an interest
for any one who is either a student of Wellington's career, or a lover of
art, it is probable that the chief attractions of Apsley House will be found
to centre in the almost humble private apartments of the great Duke,
and the Museum where the more personal relics associated with him
are preserved. These rooms, in 1853, were thrown open to the public,
as remaining then in the exact state in which they were when last used
by Wellington in September 1852 ; and one who then inspected them
tells how " the library he consulted, the books he kept beside him for
reference, the mass of papers, maps, and documents, even to the latest
magazine, were undisturbed." This is the room in which Lord EUesmere
records having often seen the Duke sleeping in his chair amidst a chaos
of papers. It was lined with book-cases and despatch-boxes (for we must
not forget that if he was Commander-in-Chief, he was also Prime
Minister), and there was the red morocco chair in which he worked — •
and slept, as we have seen ; and an upright desk at which he stood to
write ; on the walls hung the engravings of the Duke — one of these
probably that which Lord EUesmere, writing from memory, thought
was in one of the bedrooms, in which Wellington is represented, by a
Portuguese artist (it was taken after Talavera) in a Portuguese uniform
with hessian boots ; the other by Count D'Orsay when he was an old
man, and a Cosway drawing of the Countess of Jersey, hanging between
medallions of Lady Douro (the Duke's daughter-in-law) and Jenny Lind !
In the Secretary's Room stood an object of great interest ; the rough
unpainted box, which had been with the Duke in all his campaigns, and
on which he had often written those despatches which so forcibly attest
the lucidity of his mind, or those military orders which led to so many
victories.
The small bedroom, approached by a short passage, contained little
1 88 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
but his exiguous bedstead curtained with green silk hangings, and practi-
cally its sole mural decorations were an unfinished sketch of Lady Douro,
a small portrait in oils, and two cheap prints of military men.
In the Museum, which contains many of the articles which have
already been mentioned, such as the gifts of foreign sovereigns, the
Wellington shield and the great candelabra, are a number of glass-topped
cases in which are arranged the swords, batons, and the innumerable
orders, belonging to the Duke ; more interesting still, perhaps, his two
pairs of field glasses, the cloak which he wore in the Peninsula and which
is almost as famous as Napoleon's grey coat ; a sword which once belonged
to Napoleon himself ; the dress which Tippoo Sahib was wearing when
he was captured ; the fine " George " set with diamonds which Queen
Anne had given to Marlborough and which George IV. in turn presented
to his Marlborough, and innumerable medals struck in honour of the
Duke ; as well as the identical George which Charles I. gave to Bishop
Juxon on the scaffold, to mention but these.
I have particularly laid stress on two essential points of interest in
Apsley House ; the chief being the memory of the great man with whom
it will always be indissolubly connected ; the other the superb collection
of pictures with which it may be said, without exaggeration, to be filled ;
but it need hardly be remarked that besides these treasures, every room
is not only more or less magnificent in decoration, in the matter of
ceilings, mantelpieces, over-doors, &c., but also contains a wealth of
beautiful furniture and bric-d-brac, which both add to their splendour
and interest.^
In the relatively small grounds at the back of Apsley House, the great
Duke was wont to walk, and, like his famous rival, Napoleon, used
occasionally to water the shrubs with a hose ; and it is interesting to re-
flect that, perhaps, there were occasions when the great protagonists of
Waterloo might each have been employed in " spouting water on the
trees and flowers in their favourite gardens," ^ at an identical moment.
' A Catalogue Raisonne of the pictures at Apsley House was published by Mitchell, of
Bond Street, while Evelyn, Duchess of Wellington, brought out, some years ago, a magnificent
descriptive catalogue, profusely illustrated, in two volumes.
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I90 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
house on various occasions for, before Lord Clarendon took it, we find it
fitted up, in 1664-65, for the reception of the French Ambassador, and
Lord Craven residing here two years later. In 1668, however, a scheme
was on hand to transfer the property to a very different character, for
in that year Charles IL purchased it for Barbara VilUers, notorious both
as Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of Cleveland, and on May 8th,
the gossiping Pepys is able to state that she " is to go to Berkshire House,
which is taken for her, and they say a Privy Seal is passed for /5000
for it."
That very accommodating gentleman who from plain Roger Palmer,
Esq., was elevated into Earl of Castlemaine ^ in 1661, resided here for
about a year with the lady who bore his name ; but it would appear
that he then found it convenient to leave her in sole (though anything
but solitary) possession of her new plaything.
Two years later Lady Castlemaine was created Duchess of Cleveland,
and this marks the period at which the name of Berkshire House was
changed to that of its new mistress. Of this notorious personage perhaps
the less said the better ; her baneful influence over Charles who, to
gratify her caprices and her mania for gambling, impoverished an ex-
chequer that was always at a low ebb ; her licentiousness, which com-
pared not unfavourably with that of Messilina or Faustine ; her favoured
lovers, Jermyn and Churchill, Chatillon and Montagu, Goodman and
Hart and Hall, the players, and Fielding the beau ; her covetousness
and her temper, are these not all written in the diaries and memoirs of
the period, and is it not better to leave the unsavoury record in the decent
interment of the pages, among others, of Pepys and Evelyn, the latter
of whom considered that Cleveland House was " far too good for that
infamous " ?
After a time the Duchess found Cleveland House and its large gardens
were unnecessary to her, or perhaps she had been losing heavily at Bassett
— one remembers that twenty-five thousand which she is said to have
lost in a single evening — and found it impossible to cajole Charles into
a further grant ; in any case she sold a portion of the ground towards
St. James's Street, and several houses were built upon it, one of which
was inhabited by the Earl of Nottingham, one of those Finches (he was
Daniel, second Earl) whose swarthy complexion gave point to their nick-
name of the " black funereal finches," presumably after he had sold
Nottingham House to William HL, in 1691.
On the death of the Duchess, in 1709, Cleveland House passed to
' He died in 1705, a little less than a year before the Earl of Berkshire, who lived to
over ninety.
BRIDGEWATER HOUSE 191
her son, Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Cleveland and Southampton who
lived here, till his death in 1730. As his son married, in the following
year, a daughter of the Lord Nottingham mentioned above, it is probable
that the proximity of their parents' homes may have been instrumental
in bringing the young people together. The second Duke did not,
however, reside at Cleveland House after the death of his father, for
on that event taking place, the house was purchased by Scroop Egerton,
first Duke of Bridgewater, a forbear of its present owner. He was
succeeded in the title and occupancy of the mansion, which was
then variously known as Cleveland House and Bridgewater House, by
his fourth son, who, however, lived but three years after coming
into the title ; when his brother Francis Egerton succeeded him, in
1748, and died unmarried in 1803. It was he who, in 1795, made con-
siderable alterations to the house, refacing it, &c., but who is chiefly
famous for that remarkable collection of pictures which he brought
together and which, at his death, was, even in those days of relatively
small prices, valued at ^150,000.
The wonderful taste displayed by the third Duke for collecting works
of art, would appear, from a paper written by Lord Ellesmere, in the
Quarterly Review for March 1844, to have had its genesis in the Duke's
early associations with Robert Wood, an art critic of no mean order, and
an active member of the Society of Dilettanti, being indeed the first
director of its archaeological ventures.^ Certain it is that, to quote
Lord Ellesmere's words, " dining one day with his nephew, Lord Gower,
afterwards Duke of Sutherland, the Duke saw and admired a picture
which the latter had picked up a bargain for some ^10, at a broker's in
the morning. ' You must take me,' he said, ' to that d — d fellow to-
morrow.' " If this was the first step in the direction of picture collecting,
it was followed up with an assiduity that only the most vital interest,
sound judgment, and unlimited means could have rendered possible ;
for the Duke acquired no less than forty-seven of the finest pictures from
that famous gallery of the Duke of Orleans which had once been the
wonder and envy of the whole artistic world.^
The noble collection thus formed was left by the Duke, appropriately
enough, to that nephew whose taste had first inspired its formation. Earl
Gower, who succeeded his father as the second Marquis of Stafford a
little over six months after his uncle's death in 1803, and who was created
• He accompanied Bouverie and Dawkins, in 1750, on a journey of exploration into Asia
Minor, and joined the Society in 1763. He and Dawkins published works on the ruins of
Baalbec and Palmyra. He died in 1771.
^ I have given a short account of this collection and its vicissitudes in the chapter on
Stafford House.
192 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Duke of Sutherland, thirty years later, only shortly before his own death.
During his possession of the collection it was known as the Stafford
Gallery, and an elaborately illustrated description of the pictures was
published by W. J. Ottley, in four volumes, with that title, in 1818.
A clause in the Duke of Bridgewater's will provided for the reversion
of the collection to Lord Stafford's second son, Lord Francis Egerton,
who was created Earl of Ellesmere, in 1846, and who it will be remembered
had married, in 1822, Harriet Catherine, daughter of Charles Greville,
of journal fame. A delightful little biographical notice of Lord Ellesmere,
which his daughter, Alice Countess of Stafford, prefixed to his Reminis-
cences of the Duke of Wellington, published in 1903, and which is modestly
termed " a brief memoir," is quite sufficient to indicate the charm
of his character and the extent of his knowledge, besides incidentally
showing that he was a letter-writer of no mean order, possessing the art
of vividly depicting scenes and events, and that he had a gift of humour
which enabled him, in a letter from Madrid dealing with men and matters
of high political import, to gravely conclude with " I have no events
to tell, unless it interests you to hear that Sir William a'Court has a swelled
face, and that his Secretary's dog has had a severe action with a cat, and
was obliged to retreat with the loss of her left eye, which has thrown
a damp on the spirits of the embassy " ; the latter touch being quite
in the Walpolian manner. Lord EUesmere's love of literature and faciUty
as a linguist are remembered by his translations from Goethe and Schiller,
many of whose noble lines he rendered into forcible and easy verse ;
his ability with the pencil is proved by the sketchbooks filled with the
results of his observations in many lands ; he was, too, an ardent sports-
man ; and the additions he made to the famous collection which he
had inherited shows that his love of art was hardly less pronounced than
that of his father or great-uncle. In 1833 he entered into possession of
Bridgewater House ; and it was he who, some years later, rebuilt the
old mansion. It would appear that there was at first a design to add
to the original structure and probably to encase it, but such restoration
was found impossible from the fact that dry rot had so penetrated the
whole place that nothing short of complete rebuilding was practicable.
The work was undertaken, under the superintendence of Sir Charles
Barry, and during its progress Lord Ellesmere rented No. 18 Belgrave
Square, now the headquarters of the Austro-Hungarian Embassy.
The rebuilding of Bridgewater House occupied many years, but it
was practically completed in 1849,^ as an inscription above the entrance
' The Builder for October 3, 1849, contained a short account of the rebuilding, together
with a ground plan of the mansion.
BRIDGEWATER HOUSE 193
states. There is no doubt but that the better accommodation of the
pictures was the chief reason for this vast work being undertaken. Dr.
Waagen was, however, disappointed with the lighting of the gallery,
but we must remember, also, that he found fault with the architecture,
considering Barry less happy in dealing with the Italian than with the
Gothic style ; and he even goes so far as to say that " in the taste of
the forms and decorations," it is inferior to its " stately neighbour,"
Stafford House ! But, if he is thus adversely critical over the mansion
itself, his enthusiasm for the pictorial contents is shown not only by the
space he allots to their consideration, but also by the fact, that of all the
great private galleries in London, it is that of Bridgewater House which
he deals with first after the Royal collection.
Before I attempt to say anything about the pictures and other
beautiful contents of the house, I may give a few details as to the build-
ing itself. Thus it is nearly a square, the west fa9ade measuring I20 feet,
while the south front is about 20 feet longer ; and although it has out-
wardly the appearance of a solid block, the interior is broken by two
courts which help to give additional light and air. The rooms are
arranged with that regard for personal comfort combined with adapta-
bility to stately functions which is a common attribute to most of the
great houses of London. The state apartments are on the first floor,
while the great gallery faces north and, indeed, extends the whole length
of, and a little beyond, the mansion on that side.
I am confronted with no ordinary difficulty in dealing with this great
collection, the adequate description of which would require a large volume.
My scheme is not to give a catalogue raisonni of the various galleries
which are mentioned in this work, neither do \, on the other hand, desire
to pass them by with a bald note of subject and painter, for this is what
we can find in a guide-book. A plethora of adjectives is also less
exhilarating to the reader than to the writer, who when he sets down
the words " beautiful," " grand," or " magnificent " connects with
those terms the perfect drawing and colouring of some work which they
conjure up to his mind's eye. All, I think, therefore, that I can do is
to refer generally to some of the most remarkable of the treasures as they
hang in the various rooms, and although this method is a tantalising one,
and is apt to whet the appetite of the reader, he may solace himself with
the consolation that the noble owner is not averse from granting per-
mission to view the gallery, where a proper introduction is forthcoming.
I may here state that the number of pictures in Bridgewater House
is over 400, including the 47 from the Orleans Gallery, but excluding
150 original drawings by the Caracci, and 80 by Guiho Romano, which
N
194 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
the first Earl of Ellesmere purchased in 1836, from the "princely collec-
tion," as Smith termed it, of Sir Thomas Lawrence.
The great Hall in the centre of Bridgewater House is surrounded on
the first floor by an arcaded corridor, in the Italian style, supported by
massive pillars of green scagliola marble, and in this gallery hang works by
Nicholas Poussin, and Andrea del Sarto, " the faultless painter," besides
productions by lesser masters, as well as some frescoes from Cicero's Villa at
Tusculum, and much interesting, but chiefly modern, sculpture.
Poussin is represented by the famous " Seven Sacraments," which
were executed at Rome for M. Chantelou, and represent the sacraments
according to the Roman Ritual, viz., Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage,
Penance, Ordination, the Last Supper, and Extreme Unction. The
painter worked at these subjects twice, the first set being undertaken,
about the year 1636, for his patron, the Cavaliere del Pozzo, and are
now at Belvoir, having been purchased by the Duke of Rutland on the
advice of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Walpole in a letter to Lady Ossory
(Dec. I, 1786) mentions seeing them at Sir Joshua's, and liking them
better than when he had before seen them in Rome. " * There are two
of Baptism,' says he. Sir Joshua said, ' What could he mean by paint-
ing two ? ' I said, ' I concluded the second was Anabaptism.' "
The set at Bridgewater House are on a larger scale than their pre-
decessors, and the first to be finished (in 1644) was, curiously enough,
the last of the series ; ^ the " Marriage " being the last painted, and
finished four years later. On M. Chantelou's death, the Duke of Orleans
bought them for 120,000 francs ; and when the Duke's collection was
brought to England they were valued at ^4900, at which figure the
Duke of Bridgewater secured them. Waagen considers that the " Con-
firmation," " Baptism," and " Marriage," are the most remarkable of
them, and although Poussin's mannerisms are noticeable throughout the
series, and faults have been pointed out even in the best of these seven
pictures, still they may be reckoned as among his greatest works.
There is another Nicholas Poussin here, " Moses Striking the Rock,"
from the same collection as the " Seven Sacraments," of which FeUbien
thus speaks : " II fit pour M. de Gillier, qui etait aupres du Mareschal
de Crequy, cet excellent ouvrage ou Moyse frappe le Rocher, et qui apres
avoir et6 dans les cabinets de M. de L'Isle Sourdiere, du President de
Bellievre, de M. de Dreux, est aujourd'hui (1688) un des plus considerables
tableaux que I'on voye parmi ceux du Marquis de Seignelai." There
' On the other hand, Felibien states that the Eucharist, executed in 1644, was the first to
be completed, and was the one most esteemed by the painter.
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196 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
of the Duke of Bracciano, and thence into that of the Duke of Orleans
from whom the Duke of Bridgewater bought it for £600 !
Of the pictures by the two Caracci represented in the gallery a
noticeable one by Ludovico is " The Descent from the Cross," which
was once in the collection of the Duke of Modena, and afterwards in
that of the Duke of Orleans, and which cost the Duke of Bridgewater but
400 guineas ; while of the four by Annibale, the most important is the
" St. Gregory at Prayer," which was painted for Cardinal Salviati, as an
altar-piece for San Gregorio, at Rome, whence it was somehow purchased
by Mr. Day, at the end of the eighteenth century. A few years later
it was publicly exhibited in London, and was bought by Lord Radstock,
from whose gallery it passed into that of Lord Stafford, whence it came
into the Bridgewater House collection. It is interesting to know that
a pious fraud was perpetrated in order to get it secretly out of Italy,
which was effected by painting over it, in water colour, a copy of a
picture by Guido Reni. Another noticeable Annibale Caracci is " The
Virgin and Child, with St. Francis," once in the collection of M. de
Launoy, and later one of the Orleans pictures.
Of the fine works by Tintoretto in the collection, four, including
" The Entombment," hang in the gallery. This work was formerly
at Madrid whence it passed to the Orleans Gallery, being purchased
by the Duke of Bridgewater for 600 guineas. It is said, by Mrs. Jameson,
that there was formerly an angel in the upper part of the picture, but
that the canvas has been cut down for some reason or other. Not far
off hangs also the same master's " Presentation in the Temple," from the
Orleans Gallery ; his portrait of a gentleman holding a book, from the
same collection ; and another portrait of a Venetian nobleman, dated
1583, which has, however, also been ascribed to Marietta Tintoretto, the
daughter of the great Jacopo.
Salvator Rosa is represented in the gallery by his " Jacob Watering
his Flock." This was one of the works which Sir Paul Methuen pur-
chased in Italy, on behalf of the Duke of Bridgewater ; but the pigments
have turned so black that the picture has lost what of original charm and
beauty it may have possessed. It is signed " Rosa," and was engraved
in the " Stafford Gallery." Two other works by the same painter hang
respectively on the staircase, and in one of the sitting-rooms ; the first
being "A Riposo," a signed picture of remarkable power, which was added
to the collection by the Earl of Ellesmere ; and " A View in a Wild
and Mountainous Country," once belonging to the Due de Prashn, and
formerly known as " Les Augures."
A R.embrandt in the Picture Gallery represents Hannah and the
BRIDGEWATER HOUSE 197
child Samuel, according, at least, to Michel who ought to know, although
this attribution of subject I have elsewhere seen described as " absurd,"
on the ground that the picture merely indicates a child praying at an
old woman's ^ knee, and it has been variously called " Samuel and Eli,"
" The Mother and Child," &c. This small and exquisite picture
measures but i/f in. by 13! in. and is signed, and dated 1648. It has
been in the De Flines, De Roore, and Julienne collections before finding
its present resting-place. The beauty of the execution and the delicacy
of the chiaroscuro have been recorded by Rembrandt's biographers,
and although the colour has somewhat deteriorated, it is worthy of the
year in which the master produced the Pacification of Holland, at
Rotterdam, and the perfect " Supper at Emmaus " which hangs in the
Louvre.
Of the six examples of Rembrandt, in Bridgewater House, three
besides the one just referred to, hang in the gallery ; one, a study for the
portrait of a man, is described by Smith ; another, a portrait of the
painter himself, signed, and dated 1659, formerly belonged to Lady
Holdernesse, at whose sale it was purchased in 1802 ; while the third,
an earlier work, said to have been painted in 1632, represents the portrait
of a lady, and was once in the collection of the Comte de Merle, and
M. Destouches.
Concerning the wonderful assemblage of works by the Dutch masters
that adds to the catholicity of the Picture Gallery, it is obviously im-
possible to speak in any detail ; here is Ostade's " Lawyer in his Study," the
figure of the man of law being the same as that introduced into another
work by the same painter representing a lawyer perusing a document while
his client stands by holding in his hand an acceptable present of game, a
picture signed and dated 1671, and formerly in the Fagel gallery ; here is
a superb Metsu, a " Mounted Cavalier " halting at the door of a mansion and
receiving a glass of wine from the lady of the house, which Smith describes
fully in his Catalogue Raisonne, and which was formerly in the Lubbeling,
and Wretsou collections ; here, too, is the well known, and much engraved
portrait of the artist in his study, playing on the violin, by Gerard Dou,
dated 1637, and probably one of the finest examples of the master in
existence. Spiering, the Swedish Ambassador, purchased this picture from
the artist and presented it to Christina, Queen of Sweden, who, however,
in 1654, returned it to the donor, in whose collection Sandrart saw it ;
later, it was for many years in the possession of the family of Mr.
Ladbrooke, of Portland Place ; and lastly, for I must unfortunately stop
somewhere, here is an " Interior of a Cottage " by a master little known
' Not improbably the painter's mother.
198 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
in this country, though highly thought of in his own, Cornehs Bega,
executed with a degree of finish that is rather akin to the enamels of
Petitot than to the more stubborn medium of oil painting. Bega was
Ostade's ablest pupil, and if not his equal in breadth certainly his superior
in finish, his work recalling the achievements in minute detail painting,
of such men as Metsu and Mieris.
In the North Drawing Room is an example of a rare master — Ary
de Voys, representing a young man with a book, signed A de Vols F.
The name of this painter will be unfamiliar, I suspect, to many even
of those whose excursions into the study of art are something more than
merely superficial. Ary de Voys, or Vois, born at Leyden in 1641, appears
to have been of an impressionable temperament, for he is known to have
copied in turn the manner of Knuifer, Tempel, and Slingelandt, as he
afterwards did that of Poelemberg, Brouwer, and Teniers. By a marriage
with an heiress he seemed likely to lose what chance of fame he already
possessed, but after three years of idleness, he returned to his former
studious habits without any deterioration being perceptible in his work
which generally represented stories from the mythology ; although he not
infrequently painted portraits, and what were termed " conversation
pieces." His pictures sold at high prices and there was a great demand
for them, but he appears to have been somewhat indolent during his later
years, which accounts for the scarcity of his productions. He died, in his
native town, in 1698.
Among other pictures of the Dutch school which hang in the North
Drawing Room, there is a beautiful little Terburg — " Paternal Instruction,"
which has passed through various well-known collections, such as the
Lubbeling, Beaujon, Proley, and Wharncliife ; a David Tenier — a highly
characteristic, full and joyous canvas ; one of Van de Heyden's views
of a " Town in Holland " ; and a Mieris, representing a lady seated at
her toilet — one of those works whose executive skill would seem almost
superhuman, were there anything beyond mere marvellous technique in
this painter's productions.
Ostade, Gerard Dou, Van der Neer, Swanevelt, Jan Both, Netscher,
Metsu, and Berghem are also represented in this room, and here may
also be seen in a strange conjunction, Murillo and Hogarth, Velasquez,
Pietro da Cortona, and Sassoperrato ! The Pietro da Cortona, " Shep-
herds Adoring the Infant Christ," is curious as being painted on slate ;
while a somewhat similar picture to Sassoperrato's " Head of a Madonna,"
but showing the hands, which that at Bridgewater House does not, is in
the National Gallery. The Hogarth and two of the Velasquezs (for there
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BRIDGE WATER HOUSE 199
are three in this room) represent portraits of the painters themselves ; the
third composition of the great Spaniard is a portrait of a natural son of
the famous minister the Duke d'Olivarez, whose story is told by Le Sage
at the conclusion of Gil Bias, as readers of that amusing work will
remember. The picture was purchased by the Earl of Ellesmere from
the collection of the Count Altamira.
The first room (The Sitting Room) we enter on the ground floor
has the unique distinction among the apartments of the great London
houses of containing no less than four works by Raphael. Let us loiter
a moment before each of them before turning to the other treasures
with which the room is filled.
Perhaps the most fascinating is the circular picture known as " La
Vierge au Palmier," which dates from the master's Florentine period,
and is traditionally supposed to have been executed for Taddeo Gaddi,
in 1506. Muntz brackets it with the "Holy Family with the Lamb," at
Madrid, as departing from the earlier methods of the painter when
depicting the Virgin ; " while," adds this authority, " it has all the
Florentine charm, it has also the gravity which marks the Madonna
of the Roman period," and he points out that Joseph instead of being
subordinated is brought into prominence by being made a principal figure
in the group, as he presents to the infant Jesus the flowers which he has
just picked. There is a curious story told of this work — indeed the Duke
of Orleans, its former possessor, is said to have related it to Lord Stafford
himself. It appears that the picture before becoming the property of the
Duke of Orleans, had been left to two old ladies, who could neither of
them decide to let the other have entire possession of it, and if it can be
believed, they actually cut the picture in half ! The two pieces, luckily,
came together again, and Hazlitt states that the join may still be dis-
tinguished " passing from the bottom of the picture right through the
body of the child, and close to the forehead of the Virgin." The work
subsequently came into the hands of the Count de Chiverni, from
whom it passed to the Marquis d'Aumont. Later it was sold to M. de
la Noue for 5000 francs, the purchaser also being obliged to furnish
the Marquis with a copy by Phihppe de Champagne. At a still later
date it was in the galleries successively of Tambonneau and M. de Vanolles,
from the latter of whom the Duke of Orleans purchased it. The valua-
tion set on it when bought by the Duke of Bridgewater, among the
Orleans pictures, was ^1200 !
Another Raphael, known as the " Bridgewater Madonna," also from
the Orleans collection, hangs, as Hazlitt said it always ought to do, close
200 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
to the " Vierge au Palmier," " so sweetly do they set off and illustrate
each other." A curious thing is that both the Virgin and Child in each
picture have identically the same faces, although executed at different
periods, by which it would seem that the same models were used, or
that one of the works must have been painted, so far at least as the faces
were concerned, from the other. The latter seems the more probable
solution, especially as there exist several versions of the " Vierge au
Palmier," which were apparently copied at the same time. This picture,
while in the Orleans possession, was subjected to the hazardous opera-
tion of transference from panel to canvas, which no doubt accounts for
its somewhat inferior condition. It dates from 151 2, and was brought
from Italy by Colbert, the son of the great Minister. It passed into
the Orleans collection from a M. Ronde, a jeweller, to whom it had
been transferred by M. de Montarsis, who had purchased it from the
Marquis of Seignelay, the son of Colbert. When the Duke of Bridge-
water bought it, its value was estimated at ^'3000, which, ridiculous
as such a sum now appears, is, when compared to the ^^1200 set against
the " Vierge au Palmier," a relatively heavy price.
The third Raphael is a perfect work in the master's best manner.
It is called " La Madonna del Passagio," and represents the Holy Family
walking in a green landscape. Passavant and Kugler have thrown doubts
on the authenticity of this work, and have ascribed it rather to the brush
of Francesco Penni ; and Waagen agrees with this judgment, although
he does not consider it the work of Penni. Hazlitt, on the other hand,
goes so far as to regard it " as pure and perfect a specimen as exists of
his (Raphael's) finest manner," and Mrs. Jameson concurs with this
verdict. What seems to point to its being an original work is the fact
that Philip II. of Spain gave it to the Duke of Urbino, who in turn pre-
sented it to the Emperor Rudolph II., and we can hardly imagine a mere
copy being passed among sovereigns as a valuable present. Then again
Gustavus Adolphus made a point of carrying it off from Prague after
his capture of that city, to Sweden, and when it passed to his daughter
Queen Christina it was generally regarded as, without doubt, a genuine
work ; and when she abdicated and went to reside at Rome she took it
with her. At her death it passed by bequest to her favourite, Azzolini,
and it was afterwards purchased by the Duke of Bracciano from whose
collection it passed into that of the Regent of Orleans ; and subsequently
the Duke of Bridgewater bought it for ^3000. It has thus a pedigree
that should differentiate it from the many copies that are known to
have been executed, and which may be seen at Rome, Naples, Milan,
and Vienna.
BRIDGEWATER HOUSE 201
The fourth Raphael, " La Vierge au Linge," is not improbably a
replica of the picture in the Louvre ; it is so called from the fact that
in it appears a white line near the neck, indicating an inner bodice,
which does not show in the picture in Paris. It has also been called
" The Virgin with the Diadem," and it possesses an extraneous interest
from the fact that it was once in the possession of Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Raphael dwarfs everything ; but even were he not represented so
richly, there is, in the Sitting Room alone, material for a small
but carefully chosen collection ; for here are pictures by the two
Caracci, Correggio, Domenichino, Guido Reni, Salvator Rosa, Palma
Vecchio, and Luini ; to say nothing of the works of lesser masters, which
also hang on the walls in bewildering profusion. Annibale Caracci
is represented by two canvases ; one, " St. John pointing to the Messiah,"
was originally in the gallery of the Duke of Parma, and passing into that
of M. Paillot, came into the hands of the Duke of Orleans ; the other,
" Christ on the Cross," was painted before the artist went to Rome,
and is engraved in the " Stafford Gallery." The Ludovico Caracci, is
that painter's copy of Correggio's " Marriage of Saint Catherine," a
subject Caracci treated himself in the picture hanging on the staircase ;
while of the two Correggios, one represents " The Virgin and Child,"
which, when it hung in the Orleans Gallery, was known as " La Vierge
au panier " ; ^ the other, a " Head of Christ," which was bought by the
Earl of Ellesmere from a private collection at Rome, in 1840.
The Claude, which is numbered loi in the Liber Veritatis, and is
described by Smith in his Catalogue Raisonn^, shows one of those pastoral
landscapes in which, for tone and atmosphere, the painter excelled all other
masters but one. Another landscape, executed, however, in a very different
manner, is the view in a wild and mountainous country which Salvator
Rosa gives us ; the principal feature in which composition is supposed to
represent the promontory, known as the Rock of Lisbon, at the mouth of
the Tagus.
The two works by Domenichino are " Christ bearing the Cross,"
which once belonged to Colbert's son, the Marquis de Seigneley, before
it passed into the Orleans collection ; and " The Vision of St. Francis,"
which was formerly in the gallery of M. Paillot.
But this enumeration is becoming too much in the nature of a guide
book. Let me but point out the beautiful little picture (one of the
two here) by Guido ; " The Infant Saviour asleep on the Cross," before
we take an unwilling leave of this room and its priceless treasures.
' This picture has been transferred from panel to canvas. It has also been attributed to
Schidone.
202 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
In the Drawing Room hangs a " Portrait of a Venetian Nobleman,"
by Tintoretto, painted in 1588, and once in the Orleans collection. It
was said of this master that sometimes he was as great as Titian, at others
less than Tintoretto ; as we gaze at this noble conception and note its
rich and warm colouring, and its admirable modelling, there will be
little doubt, I think, to which of these phases it should be traced.
Here, too, hangs one example of Reynolds ; the portrait in question
being now generally supposed to be that of Mrs. Trecothick, the wife
of Lord Mayor Trecothick, who succeeded the redoubtable Beckford in
that office, and whom Sir Joshua painted in 1 770-1. When this picture
was purchased by Lord EUesmere, it was, however, supposed to repre-
sent Lady Montague. Though what Lady Montague, I don't know,
seeing that Reynolds only painted Lady Caroline Montagu as a child,
and Ladies Elizabeth and Henrietta Montagu together in a group, and
so far as I can gather from his list of sitters no Lady Montague at all.^
In the same room, besides a number of smaller works by, among others,
Gonzales Coques, Paul Bril, Jan Both, Largilli^re, Hans Holbein, Paul
Moreelse, and Van der Velde, and a beautiful picture of a young girl
threading a needle, by Nicholas Maes, which I think I would as soon
possess as any of the more notable pictures here, there is a remarkable
Rembrandt ; a " Portrait of a Burgomaster," showing us an old man
with a snowy beard, seated in a chair. The picture is signed, and dated
1637, and was formerly in the collection of M. Geldermeester, whence
it was bought, by Mr. Bryan, for the Duke of Bridgewater. Two other
works, by Dutch masters, at Bridgewater House, are also worth careful
attention ; Paul Potter's " Cattle in a Meadow," dated 1650 ; and
particularly Cuyp's " View of the Maese near Dort," in which is intro-
duced Maurice, Prince of Orange and his suite, in a boat, on their way
to review the Dutch iieet. This beautiful picture came from the Slinge-
landt collection at Dort, and Waagen says no more than the truth when
he exclaims in an ecstasy, that " it looks as if the painter had dipped
his brush in light to express the play of the sunbeams, which have dis-
persed the morning mist upon the waters " ; the spectator will, on
examining the picture be as astonished as was the critic, at the free and
masterly way in which the effects are produced, and particularly the
limpid transparency of the water attained. There are other fine examples
of Cuyp at Bridgewater House, but they have not that something which
goes to make the " View of the Maese " a work of genius.
I have mentioned one Reynolds in this collection ; two other works
by the same great master hang in the State Drawing Room, one of these
' See Leslie and Taylor's Life of Sir Joshua.
I
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BRIDGEWATER HOUSE 203
represents Lord and Lady Clive, with a child and a Hindoo nurse. Leslie
states that this picture was painted in 1786, and in Sir Joshua's Hst of
sitters, Lady Clive is given as sitting in the May of that year, but I cannot
find, curiously enough, any mention of the great pro-consul's visits to
Leicester Square. Waagen speaking of this work remarks that it is one
" of those pictures by this great master which combine a lovely concep-
tion with a subdued and transparent colouring and careful execution."
The other Sir Joshua is merely a sketch for the picture of Mrs. Richard
Hoare and her son, now in the Wallace Collection.
The work of another, but relatively little known, great English portrait-
painter hangs also in this room ; the portrait of the poet Cleveland, by
Dobson, in which this fine draughtsman and colourist approaches as near to
Vandyck as Tintoretto sometimes did to Titian. If Dobson is little known,
the poet whom he has here immortalised is hardly known at all, yet the
latter was a man of action as well as a votary of the muses, and defended
with his sword the royalist cause which he celebrated by his pen ; indeed
at Newark his time seems to have been divided between this martial
activity and production of satires on the Parliamentary party, although
when subsequently imprisoned at Yarmouth, Cromwell heaped coals of
fire on his head hy ordering his release. He died two years before the
Restoration, and his poems were not collected and published till a year
after that event.
Among other painters, examples of whose work hang in this room,
are Dahl, whose portrait, once said to be of Lady Elizabeth, wife of
Scrope, fourth Earl and later first Duke, of Bridgewater, is now supposed
more probably to portray the daughter of the Earl, who later married
the third Duke of Bedford ; Lely with portraits of the Countess of
Middlesex, and Lady Elizabeth, daughter of James, Earl of Middlesex,
who became the wife of the third Duke of Bridgewater ; and Raphael
Mengs with his fine portrait of that Robert Wood whom I have before
mentioned as advising the Duke of Bridgewater on his purchases of
pictures, and who accompanied his grace during his Italian travels. Sir
George Hayter's presentment of Francis, first Earl of Ellesmere, also
hangs here, as does Lord Leighton's portrait of Lady Charlotte Greville ;
while the well-known and much engraved picture by Paul Delaroche
of the soldiers of the Parliament insulting Charles I. after his trial, is one
of the few modern paintings in the house.
In the State Drawing Room hang two fine Claude's — " Demosthenes on
the Sea Shore," engaged in his traditional training as an orator by trying
to make his voice heard above the rolling billows ; and " Moses and the
Burning Bush," in which the landscape is, as usual with Claude, the
204 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
dominating note. The former of these pictures (No. i6i of the Liber
Veritatis) was painted in 1664, for M. de Bourlemont, and together with
the latter, came into the possession of Mr. Clarke, then of the Hon. Edward
Bouverie, from whom the two works were purchased by the Duke of Bridge-
water. There is also a beautiful example of Cuyp in this room, where,
in a large landscape, cows, horses, ducks and geese are scattered about, and
a woman milks a cow beneath the shadow of some trees ; and here, too,
hangs the only Turner in the collection, a seascape with fishing-boats
in a squall, a picture painted, it is said, in direct rivalry with Van de
Velde's " Rising of the Gale," formerly in the Backer, Van Locquet and
Hope collections, which is close by in the same room. Here, also, is
a portrait of a Doge of Venice, which has been variously attributed to
Palma Vecchio, and to Tintoretto, but which, according to the high
authority of Mr. Claude PhiUips, should be rather ascribed to the school
of Titian, perhaps to Titian himself.
If there is some doubt over the authorship of this line canvas, there
is less over the portrait of Pope Clement VII., which, it is conjectured,
was painted by Titian, in 1530, at Bologna, whither the artist had attended
the Emperor Charles V. on the occasion of the visit of the latter to the Pope.
Waagen passes it by as being too feeble for Titian's brush, and considers
it a copy ; it has, however, a -provenance from the Amelot and Orleans
collections, and has, by other judges, been ascribed to the great Venetian.
In a small room known as the Small State Drawing Room, there
are over twenty pictures of varying merit and as many different schools,
hanging on the walls. Bassano is here with a " Last Judgment " ; Ludovico
Caracci with a " Dream of St. Catherine " ; and Annibale with an
" Infant St. John," a picture that formerly belonged to M. Nancre before
it passed into the Orleans Gallery ; a landscape by Domenichino, and
a " Bacchus and Satyrs " by Filippo Lauri ; and three pictures by Andrea
di Salerno, of which the first two were originally the folding wings of a
triptych, and were purchased in Naples by the first Earl of Ellesmere ;
but, perhaps finest of all, a " Cupid shaping his Bow," by Parmigianino,
a replica of the picture in the Vienna Gallery, and said to have been
executed for the Chevalier Bayard. Mrs. Jameson and Barry are both
agreed on the excellence of this work, but Waagen considers it only a
moderate example of the master. It was originally in the collection of
Queen Christina of Sweden, and later in the Bracciano Gallery, whence,
apparently about 1 721, it passed into the possession of the Duke of Orleans.
It was valued at 700 guineas when the Duke of Bridgewater took over
part of the Orleans collection. For the rest, the pictures in this room
are chiefly of the Dutch or Flemish schools — Karl du Jardin, Dusart,
BRIDGEWATER HOUSE 205
Van Lint, Van Huysum, and Berghem being among those painters whose
works are here represented.
Other rooms, such as the Library, the Small Library, the Dowager
Countess's Rooms, the Ante-Rooms, even the Service Room and the
Bedrooms, are full of pictorial works of interest and value, but nothing
short of a complete catalogue could avail to adequately describe
them.
The Dining Room is reserved exclusively for portraits ; here hang
William IIL and Queen Mary in their robes, life size, by Kneller ; Prince
Charles Edward and his mother, Clementina Sobieski, by Allan Ramsay ;
James L, of pacific memory, by Van Somer ; and Thomas Weedon, Esq.,
by John Greenhill, the pupil of Lely who feared him, 'tis said, as a rival ;
and with these the seated figure of the first Earl of Ellesmere, by Edwin
Long, and the portrait of the present holder of the title, by Rudolph
Lehmann.
I have entered somewhat minutely into the subject of the pictures
in Bridgewater House, because they form, admittedly, one of the two or
three finest collections in London, but I despair of giving anything but
the baldest idea of the wealth of pictorial art assembled within these
walls, which would require a volume to do it adequate justice ; but
perhaps some idea of the extent of the collection, as well as its remarkable
range, covering practically all schools from Raphael's day downwards,
may be gathered from the enumeration here of a relatively few of its
wonderful treasures.
As in all such great houses, the wealth of decorative objects (other
than pictures) — beautiful furniture, china, and that collection of artistic
trifles which, for want of an appropriate English word, we call bric-a-brac —
is on the same scale of beauty and value as are the canvases that look
down upon them. All this must be taken for granted by the reader,
who would hardly thank me were I to give an exhaustive list, where
Louis Quinze and Louis Seize, Sheraton and Hepplewhite and Chippen-
dale should jostle Sevres and Chelsea, Worcester and Capo di Monte,
and where I fear it would be a case of not being able to see the wood
because of the trees.
But besides these treasures, the library of rare books is one of the
most important private collections in London, being particularly rich
in Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, and containing the famous four
folio Shakespeares, besides the remarkable Ellesmere Chaucer, as well as
illuminated missals and historical MSS. of priceless value. In addition
to this fine assemblage, there is also preserved here a very remarkable
collection of coins comprising several specimens which are not to be
2o6 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
found in the British Museum ; so that from every point of view, whether
we consider the architectural beauty of the house and its internal decora-
tion, the famous pictures that hang on its walls, the rare books and manu-
scripts and coins that repose in its cabinets, or the beautiful furniture
and china that add beauty to its rooms, Bridgewater House may well
be called a palace of art.
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2o8 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
House, engraved by J. S. Muller, the mansion had but recently been
completed/ and by this picture we can see how ample were the propor-
tions of the original structure, and can also perceive at a glance how
much, both in building and land, has been curtailed from its former fair
proportions. To-day it consists of the centre portion together with
those colonnades which joined it to the two large, but inelegant, wings
shown in Eyre's drawing. These wings are now swallowed up by other
residences, and the frontage to South Audley Street is proportionately
lessened. The gardens, too, behind the mansion, which are now diminished
to vanishing point, then extended indefinitely down Curzon Street ;
and although to the south there was a rov/ of buildings with the
Grosvenor Chapel at the west corner, on the north and east was open
ground, giving point to the saying of many of Chesterfield's friends that
he had gone to live in the wilds, and to his own remark that he would
be obliged to keep a house dog, as he had taken up his residence among
thieves and murderers !
Indeed, curious as it may seem to us who now regard this portion
of the town as the centre of fashion. Lord Chesterfield was a building
pioneer in this spot ; but his enterprise was not long in being imitated,
for by a map of the parish of St. George's, dated 1787, we can see that
streets and houses had even in this short space of time sprung up on all
sides of his stately house.
The ground on which Chesterfield House was built was the freehold
of Viscount Howe, whose son, the famous naval commander, was created
Earl Howe in 1788, and was known among his sailors as " Black Dick " ;
its architect was Isaac Ware, who published a " Palladio " and lived in
Bloomsbury Square, and to whom several buildings in London can be
traced.^ It seems a little uncertain how long the house was a building,
probably about four years; at any rate it was in progress during 1747,
for we find Lord Chesterfield writing to Madame de Monconseil, on the
31st July of that year, in the following terms : " Une soci6t6 aimable
est, a la longue, la plus grande douceur de la vie, et elle ne se trouve que
dans les capitales. C'est sur ce principe que je me ruine actuellement a
bitir une assez belle maison ici, qui sera finie a la Fran9oise avec force
sculptures et dorures." On the 13th of August following. Lord Chester-
field writes to his friend Bristowe,^ in these terms : " My house goes
on apace, and draws upon me very fast. My colonnade is so fine, that
' Among other views and plans of the house is an engraved ground-plan, preserved in
the Grace collection.
' Plans of many of these are contained in Ware's Boiiy of Architecture.
3 The letters from whence these extracts are taken are now in the possession of Charles
E. Gooch, Esq., who has kindly allowed me to make use of them.
CHESTERFIELD HOUSE 209
to keep the house in countenance, I am obHged to dress the windows of
the front with stone, those of the middle floor too with Pediments and
Balustrades " ; and he adds, " I propose getting into it next Summer,
that is, provided the Bailiffs do not get into it before me " ; while, in
September of the same year, he tells his old friend DayroUes that his
only amusement is the building of his new house, and that even that
is attended by one regrettable incident — the expense.
Full of his new plaything, the Earl again writes Bristowe, on
December 1 2th of the same year : " My new house is near opening
its doors to receive me ; and as soon as the weather shall be warm enough
I shall get into the necessary part of it, finishing the rest at my leisure.
My eating room, my dressing room, mon Boudoir, and my Library will
be completely finished in three months. My court, my Hall and my
staircase will really be magnificent. The staircase particularly will form
such a scene, as is not in England. The expense will ruin me, but the
enjoyment will please me."
But although Lord Chesterfield speaks of being installed in at least
a portion of the house in three months, we find him writing again to
the same correspondent on February the 9th, 1748, and remarking,
" You will find my house very near finished, for I propose being in it
in July or August at furthest," and he incidentally indicates that the
great building had its adverse critics, for he goes on to say, " I think you
will like it, but whether you will dare to own it, I am not sure, considering
that the schola ^ fulminates so strongly against it."
The delay in the completion of the house was not only probably due
to alterations and improvements made by the fastidious Earl as it pro-
gressed, but was also increased by " the long continuance of the cold
weather," which Chesterfield tells Bristowe, on March the 31st, 1748,
" suspended all my work for a great while, and it will be with some incon-
veniency even that I shall get into my house at Michaelmas ; but I will
do it " — an assurance he repeats in another letter to his friend on June 21st,
although even then he realises that he will only be lodged in part of the
rooms as " those of show must stay till next Summer for their final
flourish " ; and he adds, " one thing however which I must prepare you
for, is that my Door will not be painted black." This is a dark saying,
and evidently contains some covert allusion, the point of which, at least
to me, is anything but clear ; unless at that moment the vagaries of fashion
ordained this sable adornment for the chief entrance to private dweUings.
On April i, 1749, Chesterfield is able to write that he is in his house,
' One wonders whether this refers to certain adverse architects generally, or to the Society
of Dilettanti in particular.
2IO THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
but even then with the reservation that " it is yet far from finished, and
cannot be completely so before Michaelmas next." The Earl appears to
have actually taken possession on March 13, 1749, ^^ ^^^ know, con-
siderably later than he expected to do, for hy a letter to Madame de
Monconseil, written in July, 1748, he spoke of being then without a house,
having left his old one,^ and not yet having got into his new one, and
he added that in six weeks he hoped to be settled in, whereas we see it was
over six months before he took up his residence in his new dwelling.
Although actually getting in he found that the decorations of the
various rooms were far from complete ; indeed the fact that the house
warming did not take place till 1752, goes to prove that the intervening
years were occupied in their embellishment. His chief care seems to
have been lavished on the boudoir and the library ; and they appear
to have been the first apartments to be finished, for in March, 1749, he
writes to DayroUes thus : " I have yet finished nothing but my boudoir
and my library ; the former is the gayest and most cheerful room in
London, the latter the best " ; indeed this " boudoir," so called on the
lucus a non lucendo principle of " a non boudare," he tells a friend, seems
to have been his pet hobby, and on it he lavished much of his good taste
and more of his ready money. Quite in the Walpoleian manner he gives
Madame de Monconseil " a description of the room : " La boisure est d'un
beau bleu," he writes, " avec beaucoup de sculptures et de dorures ; les
tapisseries et les chaises sont d'un ouvrage a fleurs au petit-point, d'un
dessein magnifique sur un fond blanc ; par dessus la cheminee, qui est de
Giallo di Sienna, force glaces, sculptures, dorures, et au milieu le portrait
d'une tres belle femme, peint par la Rosalba." He would have sent his fair
friend a like minute description of the rest of the house, but was deterred
by the fact that the younger Pliny in attempting such a picture of his
villa, failed lamentably in conveying an adequate idea of it, and the Earl
perhaps rightly thought that he was hardly likely to succeed where the
Roman had failed, for he adds aphoristically that " il est de la sagesse
de ne pas tenter des choses au dessus de ses forces."
To Bristowe, on September 17, 1747, he refers to the Library,
that Library which he afterwards speaks of as being " stuffed with easy
chairs and easy books," which he is " finishing as fast as I can " ; and he
informs his friend that " the ceiling is done and most of the wainscot
up. The Book cases go no higher than the dressings of the doors, and
my Poets which I hang over them will be in Stucco Allegorical frames
' He lived in St. James's Square from 1727 till 1733 ; and in Grosvenor Square from the
latter date till he went to Chesterfield House.
° She presented him with the mag-nificent bras dc porcelaine, that used to hang on each side
of the mantelpiece.
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212 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
age." Lord Chesterfield in these letters was used to " point his moral,"
both from his own experience as well as from the objects with which
he had surrounded himself, and which sometimes engendered, and were
sometimes combined in, his train of thought ; and we here find his new
possession pressed appropriately into the service as an educational as well
as a decorative medium.
The bookcases reached only half-way up the walls, and in the space
above them hung the portraits of some of the greatest and, it must be
confessed, one of the least, names in English literature. Here was Shake-
speare by Zucchero, flanked by Chaucer, Sidney, Spenser, Ben Jonson,
and Milton, down to Addison and Prior, Pope, Swift, and Rowe.^ Curiously
enough, although the prevailing note in the house was a French note, no
great writer of that country — not even Moliere — relieved the somewhat
insular effect of this gallery of literary great ones in the mansion that
belonged to one of the most uninsular of Englishmen. Another notice-
able room was the Italian Drawing Room, with its glittering chandelier of
innumerable lustres, and the marble mantelpiece with its massive cary-
atids. Each apartment, indeed, had its distinctive feature and its distin-
guishing note of colour decoration, formed by the beautiful silk hangings
of various hues, which had been sent from France, and in many cases
specially prepared for this artistic apotheosis. Thus, one room had a
large mirror made up of small pieces of glass, the joins being hidden by
painted cupids, flowers, and arabesques ; another was noticeable for its
girandoles, the candle branches of which were in the form of gilt tasselled
ropes. The Music Room had, of course, its organ, on which we may
suppose the airs of Handel and Bach to have often trembled ; and its
decorations were illustrative of the art of St. Cecilia. In fact, everything
in the house showed the taste and judgment and knowledge of its creator,
the pride he took in it, and the care he bestowed on its beautification.
And nothing proved these qualities better, perhaps, than the pictures
which hung on the walls, for here were to be seen examples of the masters
of pictorial art — Rubens with his sweeping brush, Titian with his glowing
colours, and Vandyke's air of refinement ; the classic landscapes of Poussin,
the correct architecture of Canaletto, the trembling saints of Guido,
and Salvator's powerful shadows.
But Lord Chesterfield was no indiscriminate purchaser ; indeed he
appears to have dealt with pictures as he would with property, and never
to have bought anything that was not a bargain. He employed two
advisers — one. Sir Luke Schaub, and the other M. Harenc, a Frenchman —
^ They are now at Bretby, Lord Carnarvon's seat, but the spaces have been filled by other
portraits.
CHESTERFIELD HOUSE 213
to assist him in the selection of works of art, while his friend DayroUes
was commissioned to hunt about for canvases that had a genuine -pro-
venance and were to be bought cheap. On one occasion we find his
lordship writing to the latter in this strain : " A fropos of money, as
I •believe it is much wanted by many people even of fashion both in
Holland and Flanders, I should think it very likely that many good
pictures of Rubens, Teniers, and other Flemish and Dutch masters may
be picked up now at reasonable rates " ; and he takes the occasion to
remind his correspondent of some of the works which he already possesses,
such as " a most beautiful landscape by Rubens, and a pretty little
piece of Teniers " ; but it seems that he now wanted works on a
larger scale, probably to fill the ample wall spaces in his new house.
" If," he adds, " you could meet with a large capital history or allegorical
piece by Rubens, with the figures as big as the life, I could go pretty
deep to have it, as also for a large and capital picture of Teniers " ; and
again he appears to have turned his attention to the Italian school : " I
will buy no more till I happen to meet with some capital ones of some
of the most eminent old Italian masters, such as Raphael, Guido, Cor-
reggio, &c., and in that case I would make an effort." He was once
nearly taken in by a Titian, which turned out " an execrable bad copy " ;
and although, by some loose prior agreement on the part of the vendor,
Lord Chesterfield eventually only had to pay the carriage of the painting,
it evidently made him particularly careful in the selection of his cheap
masterpieces.
It is not difficult to understand that the " Vanqueur du Monde,"
as Johnson, in his celebrated letter, called him, armed with a thousand
graces of mind, if not, according to Hervey and others, particularly graceful
in appearance, — " like a stunted giant," says Ashurst ; " with a head big
enough for a Polyphemus," sneers " Lord Fanny,"— surrounded as he
was by such treasures, could easily fill his house with the most notable
of his contemporaries ; but he had a further attraction at command,
he was an epicure of the first water, and indeed was one of the earliest
to introduce French cookery into this country, and his dinners and
suppers were regarded as exhibiting the quintessence of culinary art ; as
well they might do, when we remember that he engaged as cook — if this
plain unvarnished word can be considered sufficient to indicate the powers
of so distinguished a gastronomical artist — La Chapelle, who was not only
gifted with national genius, but may be said to have had a family claim
to it as being descended from that La Chapelle who catered for the more
mundane wants of the great Louis Quatorze himself.
Lord Chesterfield set an example which was followed by at least one
214 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
of his descendants, for what La Chapelle did for the palates of the master
and guests in the eighteenth century, that did Francatelli and Alexis
Soyer for the host and habituds of Chesterfield House in the nineteenth.
One of the chief merits in Chesterfield House, according to its builder,
was the fact that it had (as it still has) a spacious courtyard in front, and
(which it has no longer) a fine garden at the back — " the finest private
garden in London," according to Beckford — attributes, then as now, rarely
to be found in town houses. " My garden is now turfed, planed, and
sown, and will, in two months more, make a scene of verdure and flowers
not common in London," ^ he complacently writes to DayroUes in March
1749, in a letter which he dates, as if to give his residence a fuller
French flavour, " Hotel Chesterfield " ! Here he resided for some twenty
years, years that saw the peaceful close of a long life of considerable
political activity and more personal pleasure, of which the details need
not here be enumerated.*
On March 24, 1773, his old friend DayroUes called to inquire after
him. He found the life of this man of " exquisitely elegant manners "
slowly ebbing away. " Give DayroUes a chair," the dying Peer faintly
whispered to his attendant, and in less than an hour he was dead.' WeU
might Dr. Warren, who was present, remark that " His good breeding
only quits him with his life." But we must remember that in Lord
Chesterfield's case, good breeding was not a cloak to be put on and off
as occasion required ; it was his second nature.*
But it was not only his politeness that he preserved to his last breath ;
his wit accompanied him almost to his grave. Says Walpole, writing to
Lady Ossory on March 1 1 of this same year, " My Lord Chesterfield
bought a ' Claude ' the other day for four hundred guineas, and a ' Madame
de la Valliere ' for four. He said, ' WeU, if I am laughed at for giving so
much for a landscape, at least it must be allowed that I have my woman
cheap.' " " Is it not charming," comments Horace, " to be so agreeable
quite to the door of one's coffin ? "
I think we can see through aU the life of Chesterfield one prevailing
object : to obtain the regard and admiration of his contemporaries ;
1 Lord Essex, who died in 1839, used to say that as a boy he remembered seeing the old
Earl sitting on a rustic seat basking in the sun on the marble terrace that overlooked the
gardens at the back of the house.
- For the full account of his career see his Li/r by Ernst, as well as his famous Letters s
and particularly the work of his latest biographer, Mr. W. H. Craig.
' He was buried in the burial-ground of Grosvenor Chapel, but his body was afterwards
removed to Shelford, in Nottinghamshire.
* Lady Chesterfield, the daughter of a notorious mother, gave herself up to good works,
and was a devout follower of Whitfield ; when her husband lay dying she brought the
Rev. Rowland Hill to his bedside, but the Earl was too deaf, even had he been inchned, to
hear his pious exhortations.
CHESTERFIELD HOUSE 215
indeed, in one of his letters to his son, he says as much, " Call it vanity
if you will, and possibly it is so ; but my great object was to make every
man and every woman love me. I often succeeded ; but why ? by
taking great pains." Hervey, who loved him not, says that he often went
so far as to sacrifice his interest to his vanity ; this is the verdict of an
enemy ; a friend would, perhaps, rather see in it a readiness to give up
present advantage if by so doing friendship and esteem could be obtained.
Like all men in great positions, Lord Chesterfield has been variously
judged ; old Sarah of Marlborough left him a large sum of money and a
magnificent diamond ring as a proof of " the great regard she had for
his merit " ; and Dr. Johnson wrote him a letter which has become an
English classic ; and surely to have given the " great Cham of literature "
the opportunity of penning such a splendid rejoinder should at least help
to wipe away the neglect that inspired it.^
chesterfield was, as all the world knows, a wit of the first water, and
many are the stories of his good sayings — not as celebrated as George
Selwyn's, but often as pointed — which have come down to us. Ovce
his wit took a practical form. In the gallery at Chesterfield House he
caused to be hung two figures, one inscribed Adam de Stanhope, the other
Eve de Stanhope ; could the force of satire go further ? As Walpole says,
" the ridicule is admirable." "
Among the beautiful women who frequented the assemblies of Lord
Chesterfield few, if any, created more excitement and interest than
" those goddesses, the Gunnings " ; and here it was that the Duke of
Hamilton was first seriously attracted by the beauty of the younger of
the fair sisters, " at an immense assembly made to show the house which
is really magnificent," writes Walpole to Mann. " Duke Hamilton,"
adds our gossiping chronicler, " made violent love at one end of the room,
while he was playing at pharaoh at the other end ; that is, he saw neither
the bank nor his own cards, which were of three hundred pounds each :
he soon lost a thousand."
Few of the great houses of London have received within their walls
a more brilliant assemblage of the distinguished men and beautiful women
of their time than Chesterfield House ; and although its owner was one
who was said to have had no friend, nobody will deny that his acquaintances
were drawn from the wittiest and most dazzling society of the day.
Here might have been seen that Duke of Newcastle whose ignorance
and malapropisms have become a byword ; who for nearly thirty years
' By-the-bye although there is an ante-chamber in Chesterfield House called " Dr.
Johnson's Room," it could hardly have been here, but in Lord Chesterfield's house in Grosvenor
Square, that Johnson was repulsed from the door and kept waiting in the outward room.
' Walpole to Mann, September i, 1750.
2i6 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
was a Secretary of State, and was astounded at the information that Cape
Breton was an island, and wanted to run off and tell the King that " Great
Britain is an island " ! who was for ten years First Lord of the Treasury,
and agreed on one occasion that Annapolis must be defended, but wanted
to know where Annapolis was ; and Lord Pembroke, who was so devoted
to swimming that Chesterfield once addressed a letter to him " in the
Thames over against Whitehall " ; ^ Lord Scarborough, " as worthy a
little man as ever was born," ' of whom it was said that he had " judgment
without wit, while Chesterfield had wit and no judgment " ; Lord
Tyrawley, who grew old with his host, and like him outlived most of his
contemporaries, so that Chesterfield said wittily, " The fact is, Tyrawley
and I have been dead these two years, but we don't choose to have it
known." Lord Sandwich, with his " manners of the old court," who,
however, disgraced himself at the prosecution of John Wilkes, might have
been seen talking to the Gunnings, " the handsomest women alive," the
younger of whom married two dukes and was the mother of four ; while
the elder and better looking was once so mobbed in the Park that the
King gave her a guard to protect her from the inquisitiveness of her
many admirers ; and who once repaid that mark of royal condescension
by telling George IL that the only sight she wished to see was a coronation !
The Duke of Hamilton who spent lavishly might have been seen cheek
by jowl with Lord Bath, whose parsimony was so notorious that he would
get wet through rather than hire a coach, and who on one occasion was
actually followed into church by a persistent creditor, when the sermon,
having for its text " Cursed are they that heap up riches," and the man
of wrath pointing to my lord and groaning out, " Oh, Lord," the latter
had perforce to leave the sacred building and, we are to suppose, settle
the reckoning on one of the grave-stones. Then there was the so-called
" Long Sir Thomas Robinson," who once asked Chesterfield to write
some verses upon him, and got for his pains this distich :
" Unlike my subject now shall be my song,
It shall be wittv, and it shan't be long."
Selwyn, on whom all the good " mots " of the time are fathered ; and
Walpole, who told such numberless good stories of other people ; Dodsley,
who published for everybody, and was annoyed by Johnson's famous
letter, because he had an interest in the great Dictionary ; and David
Mallet, who wrote much, but is only remembered by Rule Britannia,
which he probably never wrote at all.
' See Characters of Eminent Personages of his 07vn Times, by the late Earl of Chesterfield,
1777-
^ Suffolk Letters, vol. ii. p. 149.
CHESTERFIELD HOUSE 217
The list might be interminably extended.^ Cui bono P They are
naught but ghosts which people the rooms of Chesterfield House ; the
inanimate objects that furnish it, alone survive to enable us to conjure
up a vanished age. Could they but speak ? And what wonderful objects
they are ! Almost as gorgeous and beautiful as those who gazed upon
them, whose robes brushed them carelessly by, whose features were
reflected in their dazzling surfaces.
After Lord Chesterfield's death the mansion passed to his cousin
Philip Stanhope, who became fifth Earl, and who, dying in 1815, was
succeeded by his son the sixth Earl; but about 1850 it was let to the
late Duke (then Marquis) of Abercorn, who resided here till 1869, when
the property was purchased by Mr. Magniac from Lord Chesterfield,
for ^150,000. Mr. Magniac proceeded to cut up the extensive gardens,
and built Chesterfield Gardens on their site, himself residing at the time
in Chesterfield House. By this development, as well as by his subsequent
sale of the mansion to Lord Burton, Mr. Magniac must have made a
splendid profit out of his investment, but much of the beauty of the
house was destroyed ; although, luckily, he did not proceed to those
extremities evidently feared by a writer in the Atheneeum at the time,
who says : " The Public are hoping that they may be permitted to see
the interior of this historical house before the first pick-axe is laid
to it."
There are few more beautiful rooms in London than the great Drawing
Room at Chesterfield House, certainly not many in which the imagination
can run riot to such an extent as here. Its decorations, marvellous
arabesques in white and gold, on which French and Italian artists spent
their luxuriant fancies ; the original crimson flowered-silk hangings in
which careful mending is here and there discernible ; its magnificent
marble mantelpiece, &c., remain as they did practically in the time of
the great Earl ; and what has since been added by the care and dis-
crimination of the present owner gives just that touch of comfort and
homeliness which is more characteristic of our day than it was of those
of the earlier Georges, when the great ones of the earth seem always to
have existed en grande tenue, and to have sacrificed, if indeed they really
ever understood, comfort to the exigencies of fashion. Now the magni-
ficently decorated walls and ceiling look not down on an almost empty
room, with chairs and settees set formally against the walls, and perhaps
a solitary escritoire or commode standing isolated in its vast expanse, but
on a room filled with rare French furniture ; tables loaded with costly
' On one occasion, in 1760, Lord Chesterfield offered the house to the Princess Emily,
George III.'s aunt, as a residence.
2i8 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
bric-d-brac ; chairs covered in valuable tapestries which seem to invite
familiar intercourse ; cabinets filled with the precious porcelain of Chelsea
and Sevres, whose ornaments have been inspired by Gouthiere or Riesener,
or whose polished surfaces of oriental lacquer reflect the light like
mirrors ; while the superb chandelier is so much in harmony with the
room, that one can hardly believe that Lord Chesterfield did not himself
place it in situ and gaze complacently on its thousand glittering facets.
Much that was here in the time of the " great Earl " has necessarily
disappeared ; many objects of interest are at Bretby, the seat of Lord
Carnarvon ; others have been scattered far and wide ; but it is probable
that few great houses which have passed out of the family that originally
owned them have had their intrinsic characteristics so carefully pre-
served as has Chesterfield House, or where additions and alterations
have been necessary have these been carried out with more judicious
discrimination or exquisite taste than here. Thus in the famous Library,
which, with all the Earl's care, seems, so far at least as the ceiling was
concerned, to have been still unfinished at his death. Lord Burton has
had the divisions filled with elaborate moulding, which appears exactly
of a piece with the original ceiling which still looks down on the State
Drawing Room ; again two other rooms have been thrown into one,
forming a superb ball-room, such as, in size at least, even Chesterfield
never dreamt of ; and where gilding has been introduced into the
decorative scheme of some of the ceilings, this has been done with a
care, and regard for fitness which is an object-lesson to some restorers
who are little better than iconoclasts. But, on the whole, there is a
great preponderance of the original work still remaining ; such as the
solid mahogany doors, the beautiful marble chimney-pieces, many of the
decorated ceilings, and the brocaded hangings, besides the unique grand
staircase and the canonical pillars.
Among the contents may also be seen some articles which have been
again brought back, after many wanderings, to their original home ; as,
for instance, two upright mirrors in elaborately carved and gilded frames,
and some chairs, covered with tapestry, on one of which Miss Gunning
may have sat when the Duke of Hamilton made violent love to her, and
another of which may have been handed to DayroUes at the dying request
of the " Vanqueur du Monde."
And the pictures ! What if the canvases collected by the Earl no
longer hang here (fine as some may have been, we know that one or two
would hardly bear critical investigation), could they have compared
with those that now look from the walls ? In the Dining Room alone^are
six Gainsboroughs, and what Gainsboroughs ! Here is the Countess of
CHESTERFIELD HOUSE 219
Sussex and Lady Barbara Yelverton ; ^ here that superb pair of portraits
of Sir Bate Dudley,' and his wife ; the former the notorious Parson-
Baronet, who once edited the Morning Post, and looks here, with his
proud, self-possessed face, as if he felt, as he probably did, capable of ruling
the kingdom ; Lady Kinnoul (hanging over the fireplace) ; and full-lengths
of Mr. and Mrs. Drummond ; while above one of the doors is a charming
portrait group by Peters, very similar to the one in the National Gallery.
There are also several remarkably fine Romneys at Chesterfield House ;
Mary, Lady Beauchamp ; the Hon. Mrs. Beresford, a picture engraved by
Jones in 1792 ; " A Beggar Man," exhibited at the Society of Artists in
1771 ; and one of the innumerable Lady Hamiltons, this time as
" Sensibility," engraved by Earlom in 1789 ; as well as a portrait of Miss Pitt.
Besides these, in the large Drawing Room, is the same painter's full-
length portrait of Lady Paulet, in a white dress and pale-blue velvet
bodice, and wearing one of those large picture hats which Gainsborough
first made an artistic accessory ; and here, too, is Romney's " Pink Boy,"
painted probably in rivalry with Gainsborough's more celebrated " Blue
Boy."
It is in this splendid room that the great chandelier that formerly
belonged to Prince Demidoff, and was afterwards in Lord Dudley's col-
lection, now hangs.
One of the Romneys hangs in the Red Room ; but a greater than
Romney is here — Sir Joshua, with his " Lesbia " ; his Sir George Bowyev,
painted between December 1768 and January 1769 ; and above all his
Admiral Keppel, probably executed in 1780, and one of the four or five
portraits he painted of his friend, each of which exhibits such individuality
of treatment that they can in no sense be considered as mere copies or
replicas. Over the mantelpiece in the Library hangs the same master's
presentment of Mrs. Hamar ; while those spaces over the bookcases, which
were, as we have seen, in Lord Chesterfield's day filled with portraits of
illustrious literary characters, are now occupied by examples of Cotes and
Zoffany, Opie, and the great Sir Joshua himself.
The small Dining Room rejoices in two Gainsboroughs and two
Romneys, the former being represented by his portrait of Miss Franks
as a little girl sitting on a bank and fondling a lamb, and Mrs. Morris,
which hangs above the chimney-piece ; while the canvases of the latter
are portraits of two young boys, whose identity has not, I think, been
satisfactorily established.
' Reproduced in Sir William Armstrong's L/ff of Gainsborough.
^ This picture was painted at Bradwell in 1785-6 ; there is a three-quarter-length portrait
of the same subject in the National Gallery.
220 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
The great Ball Room, which, as I have said, has been formed by-
throwing two rooms into one, contains three works by Reynolds, two
of which are full-length portraits ; one of Lady Sunderlin,^ who we know
sat to Sir Joshua in June 1788, and the other of Frances Wyndham,
second daughter of the second Earl of Egremont, and who was married
to the first Earl of Romney in 1776 ; and here, too, hangs a replica of
Reynolds's famous " Snake in the Grass," as well as the full-length of
Colonel Bullock, by Gainsborough.
Even the Entrance Hall is lighted up by some fine works, notably
Hoppner's " Boy with a Bow ; " Gainsborough's " Lord Sudeley ; " and
the Gawlers, father and son, by Sir Joshua,^ besides a fine and charac-
teristic picture of birds by Hondekoeter, another of whose works hangs
on the landing of the Grand Staircase.
Preserving, as it does, so much of the appearance and characteristic
charm that made it a source of wonder and delight to the world of fashion
that here gathered round its creator, Chesterfield House must always be
one of the most, if not the most, intrinsically interesting of the great
houses of London ; but when to this is added the fact that in a hundred
ways the place remains, both as to structure and internal decoration,
as it appeared when the great Earl's loving care was first bestowed upon
it with such profuseness and with such artistic discrimination, while the
memory of that remarkable man is still redolent throughout it, preserved
with pious care by the present owner who has, further beautified the place
by the wonders of art he has collected within it, I think Chesterfield
House may proudly claim to be incomparable among the private palaces
of London.
• This fine picture was exhibited at the Old Masters in 1S94, and was reproduced in
The Graphic for February 9, 1895.
- I can find no specific mention of this picture in Leshe and Taylor's Life of Sir Joshua,
but in December 1776, Mr. Gawler paid ^36, 15s. od. for his portrait, probably, from this
price, only a bust ; and the same picture is supposed to be that exhibited at the Royal Academy
in the following year, as " Portrait of a Gentleman" ; Master Gawler was sitting to Sir Joshua
in February and November 1777.
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222 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Bunsen. So that the street has been as notable for its residents in the
past, as the pages of the Red Book show it to be to-day.
But interesting as have been the associations of the various dwellings in
Curzon Street, Crewe House has an intrinsic interest of its own. It was
erected by that Edward Shepherd who built what is known as Shepherd's
Market about the year 1735, and who was also responsible for " many
other buildings about Mayfair," where he owned and rented extensive
property. He was living in 1708, in what is now Crewe House, or, more
correctly speaking, in a smaller residence on its site, for it has been obviously
enlarged, if not entirely rebuilt, since his day, and here nearly forty years
later, to be exact, on September 24, 1747, he died, a notice of which
event will be found in the Gentleman^ s Magazine for the following October.
In this year there appears in the Rate Books this entry : " Mr. Shepherd
for ground rent of the Faire market and one house ^i, is. od.," the " one
house " ' probably referring to what is now Crewe House. At any rate
it appears that Shepherd held a lease of part of the property on which
the mansion stands from the ground landlord. Sir Nathaniel Curzon of
Kedleston, which lease seems to have been renewed to his widow some-
where between 1747 and 1753, on the i6th of June of which latter year
a fresh lease was granted by Sir Nathaniel Curzon of the first part, one
John Philips, described as a carpenter, of the second part, and the Right
Hon. Charles Lord Viscount Fane of the third part, whereby the property
was demised to Lord Fane for 985 years from the previous 25th of March
1753, and this lease was expressed to be " in consideration of the surrender
of a former lease of part of the property granted to Elizabeth Shepherd,
widow." "
It is not improbable that Lord Fane bought out Mrs. Shepherd's
rights in the property, and that he resided here for a number of years.
He was the eldest son of the first Viscount Fane by his wife Mary, sister
of Lord Stanhope, and was, of course, one of the family whose chiefs
have been, since the days of James I., Earls of Westmoreland. After his
death it would appear that his widow. Lady Fane, occupied the mansion,
as she is recorded as living here from 1776 to 1792. She was followed
in her tenancy by Lady Reade, and an interesting record of the latter
lady's sojourn here is afforded by some of Sir John Soane's drawings,
now preserved in the Soane Museum, which depict certain alterations
made in the mansion, under his superintendence, and which bear his
' It is generally stated that in 1750, the mansion and grounds were offered for sale
at /500, but this not improbably means that that sum was the premium asked for the
existing lease.
- For this information I am indebted to the kindness of Messrs. Tylee & Co. who, at
Lord Crewe's desire, have given me all the information they can about the property.
CREWE HOUSE 223
written testimony that they were executed " for Lady Reade's house "
in 1813.
Lady Reade was apparently the wife of Sir John Chandos Reade,
whose name appears in a further assignment of the 1753 lease of the
property which took place on May 27, 18 17, and which was made, to
use the legal phraseology, " between Richard MaHphant and George
Bramwell of the first part, Sir John Chandos Reade of the second part,
and the Right Hon. Henry James Luttrell, Earl of Carhampton, of the
third part." This confirms the statement of J. T. Smith in his Streets
of London, to the effect that Lord Carhampton bought the place. Smith
adds that this occurred after Lady Reade's death, and he affirms that
^500 was the price then given for it ; but it would seem that he was here
confounding dates, unless, indeed, this sum was the amount again paid
for the assignment of the lease as a premium. In any case this sum is
insignificant enough to startle us who realise the enormously increased
value of property in this quarter, and even if, as is probable, the house was
smaller then than it is to-day, this fact can hardly lessen our astonishment.
The Earl of Carhampton, the head of the Luttrell family, now became
the possessor of the property. His natural son was that Henry Luttrell
whose Advice to Julia is still worth reading, and whose wit and con-
versation were considered by Gronow to far outshine those of his friend
Rogers. Lord Carhampton was the hard-living, eccentric peer who, as
Colonel Luttrell, had opposed Wilkes at the Brentford election, and had
been the object of some of Junius's bitter attacks, and who was once
Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Ireland, where, as he once told
Napoleon, then First Consul at one of whose levees he was presented,
he had the honour of serving when General Hoche landed in 1797.^ Sir
Nathaniel Wraxall tells a story of his later days which will, I think, bear
repetition, as a proof, if nothing else, of the inadvisability of too premature
an assumption of dead men's shoes. " In 18 12," says the Diarist, " soon
after the restrictions imposed by Parliament on the Regent were with-
drawn. Lord Carhampton, lying in an apparently hopeless state at his
house in Bruton Street, Berkeley Square, where he laboured under a
dangerous internal malady, inteUigence of his decease was prematurely
carried to Carlton House. The Regent, who was at table when the
report arrived, lending rather too precipitate credit to the information,
immediately gave away his regiment, the Carabineers, to one of the
company, a general officer, and he lost not a moment in kissing his royal
highness's hand on the appointment. No sooner had the report reached
Lord Carhampton than he instantly despatched a friend to Pall Mall,
' See Fifty Years of My Lift:, by Lord Albemarle.
224 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
empowered to deliver a message to the Prince. In it he most respect-
fully protested, that far from being a dead man, he hoped to surmount
his present disease, and therefore humbly entreated him to dispose of
any other regiment in the service except the Carabineers. Lord Car-
hampton humorously added, that his royal highness might rest assured
he would give special directions to his attendants not to lose a moment
after it could be ascertained that he was really dead in conveying the news
to Carlton House." ^
Lord Carhampton did not retain his new property long, for on the
29th September 1818, he assigned his lease to James Archibald Wortley,
member of Parliament for York, for the sum of ^12,000, a price which is
alone sufficient to show the extraordinary increase in the value of property
in this neighbourhood at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, to give him his proper
list of names, was the grandson of the third Earl of Bute, and great-grandson
of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu — -whose amusing letters, by-the-bye, he
edited — and was born in 1776." Commencing life in the Army, he gave up
the art of " living by being killed," as Carlyle terms it, and entered Parlia-
ment in 1797, where he distinguished himself till 1826, when he was
raised to the peerage as Baron Wharncliffe of Wortley. For a few months,
from 1834, he was Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, and in 1841, occupied
the high office of Lord President of the Council, as does the present noble
owner of his old home, the Earl of Crewe, so that there is a certain appro-
priateness in the fact that the latter now possesses the house.
Mr. Stuart-Wortley, as he then was, married in March 1795, Lady
Caroline Crichton, daughter of the first Earl of Erne, and died in 1845,
having just celebrated his golden wedding. Lady Wharncliffe surviving
him a little over ten years. According to Lady Dorothy Neville's last
amusing book. Lord Wharncliffe used frequently to entertain the staff of
the Ozvl at dinner here, and he occasionally contributed acrostics to that
paper. The Ozvl, it is well known, was started by Evelyn Ashley, James
Stuart-Wortley, and Lord Glenesk, other contributors being the Hon.
Mrs. Norton, Bernal Osborne, Vernon Harcourt, A. Hayward, Lord
Houghton, and Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford.
Wharncliffe House, as the mansion was then called, remained in the
possession of the Stuart-Wortley family till the death of the first Earl in
1899, some time after which event the Earl of Crewe purchased it for
^90,000, and changed its name to that which it now bears.
' Posthumous Memoirs^ vol. ii. p. 129.
^ The additional name of Wortley was assumed by the father of the first Baron Wharncliffe,
as was that of Mackenzie, but the latter only for himself and the successive heirs to his estate.
That of Montagu was prefixed by the late Earl, and his brother the father of the present Earl.
CREWE HOUSE 225
Crewe House, as I began by saying, stands in a pleasant oasis of trees
and shrubs, lying back from the main thoroughfare. From the latter it
is not only screened by a wall, but, an unusual adjunct in town, by a
hedge, and this together with the creeper-covered entrance lodge gives
it a rus in urbe appearance which is unique among London houses. The
mansion itself is a wide-fronted building, decorated by four Ionic columns
and by large semicircular bays at either end, and is eloquent of the early
Georgian days when young men of family made the grand tour, and
returned home fuU of the beauties of Greece and Rome which they did
what they could to apply to the domestic architecture of this country.
Those were the days when the Society of Dilettanti was a power in the
land, when Brettingham and Gavin Hamilton purveyed antiques from
calmly indifferent countries, and Nicholas Revett and " Athenian " Stuart
first set that fashion for exploring the dead ground of ancient Greece
and Rome which was for a time followed so assiduously.
Although Crewe House does not claim to be a striking example of
the fashion then inaugurated, it at least remains as a proof of the earnest-
ness with which cultivated men then threw themselves into the quest
for examples of the architecture of ancient times. Nothing can be said
against such an enthusiasm ; and if there be those who are critical over
the application of such architecture to the everyday needs of a country
so alien in every respect from the life and thought of early Greece or
ancient Italy as England, it was at least a saner and more defensible
movement than that which prompted Walpole and his school to imitate
in stucco the solidity of Gothic, and to apply what was appropriate to
castles to the architectural adornment of suburban villas.
In old records of Crewe House it is generally described as being " over
against the chapel." Now this is not quite so distinctive an address as
one might at first suppose, for although Mayfair or Curzon Chapel was
exactly opposite, its site now being occupied by the massive building
known as Sunderland House, erected for the Duke and Duchess of
Marlborough a few years since, the other and very notorious Keith's
so-caUed " chapel " also stood close by.
Mayfair Chapel, an ugly enough building, was erected in 1720, and is
perhaps chiefly notable in having had, as its first incumbent, the notorious
Rev. Alexander Keith, who performed marriages here without the
formalities of banns or licence, and made a splendid thing out of it, until
outraged authority put a stop to his activity in 1742. But such a man
as Keith was hardly likely to be hindered by measures which were, it would
seem, rather half-hearted, and he very soon afterwards established a
chapel close by on the other side of the street. And not only this, he
226 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
even had the audacity to advertise his new place of business — for it was
little else — and in order that those requiring his assistance should not
have the excuse of not knowing his whereabouts, he set forth, in the
Daily Post of July 20, 1744, the fact that " the little new chapel in
Mayfair ... is in the corner house, opposite to the city end of the great
chapel, and within ten yards of it," and added the information that " the
minister (himself) and clerk live in the same corner house where the Httle
chapel is," concluding with the remark : " that it may be better known
there is a porch at the door like a country church porch." Here for
one guinea inclusive Keith was prepared " at any hour till four in the
afternoon " to splice amorous couples with a celerity and informality
that carries us in imagination rather to Gretna Green or the Fleet than
to the heart of fashionable London. Keith was imprisoned, but un-
daunted. During his incarceration his wife died, and he had her body
embalmed until he should be able to attend her funeral ; and he even
went the length of making her decease a means of fresh advertisement for
his chapel where he had arranged for a substitute to carry on his ille-
galities. When he was first told that the Bishops would put a stop to
his action, he is said to have exclaimed : " Let them ; and I will buy
two or three acres of ground, and, by God, I'll underbury them all."
The name of those who took advantage of Keith's impudence is legion ;
no less than 7000 marriages (if they can be so termed) are recorded as
being celebrated by him or his myrmidons, in three old registers that
survive, although this must have represented but a tithe of those per-
formed ; indeed it is stated that no less than 6000 persons were married
in a single year, until the Marriage Act of 1754 stopped even his activity.
It was here that the Duke of Hamilton married Miss Gunning in
1752, " with a ring of the bed curtain," as Horace Walpole relates in a
frequently quoted passage ; Lord George Bentinck was joined to Mary
Davies here in the following year, and, to mention no others, it is said
that on the very day before the Marriage Act came into force, no less
than sixty-one couples were " spliced " by Keith's unhallowed hands.
The moment of Keith's greatest activity was that during which the
Mayfair, from which the whole of this district takes its name, was held
here, and which, dating from the time of Charles II., was continued
without intermission till 1708, and then, after some years' cessation, had
an intermittent existence for another hundred years, being finally abolished
in 1809, as the result of complaints and representations made by Lord
Coventry, who lived close by.
The history of Mayfair is a fascinating subject, but not one that must
detain us here ; indeed we have loitered too long already outside Crewe
CREWE HOUSE 227
House in the not very edifying company of Mr. Keith and his delin-
quencies.
Like all large houses in London, Crewe House is filled with artistic
treasures, and although there are many which have an historic provenance,
the greater number have a claim to notice as being family heirlooms,
which gives them an added interest. Considering what a large space
Lord Crewe's father — the Monckton-Milnes, Lord Houghton, of an
earlier day — occupied in the social, political, and literary life of his times,
it would be strange if we did not find, in this house, a wealth of remini-
scences of that remarkable man, and here in the Entrance Hall hangs his
portrait by Rudolph Lehmann, while in the Drawing Room, the windows
of which look out on to the garden over whose walls the Duke of Marl-
borough's stately stone residence rears its ample proportions, hang a
number of portraits of the forbears of that most literary of peers.
Here are Sir Robert Milnes and his wife — Lady Milnes, daughter and
co-heir of Joseph Poole of Drax Abbey — in full length, by Romney ; and
close by, Mrs. Cunliffe Offly, by Sir Thomas Lawrence ; the dog which
she nurses being from the hand of Landseer ; an earlier portrait of the
same lady, when yet Miss Emma Crewe, is by Hoppner ; and the portrait
of her husband, Mr. Cunliffe Offly, by Harlow, hangs on the opposite wall.
Two more noticeable family portraits are those of John, first Lord
Crewe,^ and his wife Frances, Lady Crewe, daughter of Fulke Greville, of
Wilbury, Wilts., by Lawrence ; a beautiful portrait of Madame Rodes,^
by Gainsborough, a picture of a young boy, entitled " Edwin," by Wright
of Derby, and two landscapes by Zuccarelli, complete the pictorial decora-
tion of the Drawing Room, in which French furniture and bric-a-brac,
including beautiful snuff-boxes (preserved in glass-topped tables), are
lighted up by two mirrors, one of which hangs over the mantelpiece, in
elaborately carved and gilded frames, giving a touch of Italy to the apart-
ment which the deeply moulded domed ceiling dominates.
From this Drawing Room two other apartments are reached, opening
into each other, and forming one of the delightful vistas which are so
pleasant a feature in many of the larger London houses. The Boudoir,
with one of those recesses beloved by Georgian builders, is the room
seen through an intervening apartment known as the Central Drawing
Room, in which hangs Romney's speaidng portrait of Miss Hannah Milnes,
and from which opens an octagonal winter garden. The Boudoir, with
its Louis Quinze and Louis Seize furniture, and its peaceful outlook on
' He was born in 1742, and died 1829 ; and had been created a peer in 1806.
' Sir Godfrey Rodes of Great Houghton, of whom there is a portrait at Fryston, was the
direct ancestor of Lord Houghton.
22 8 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
to the gardens, is, indeed, one must think, named on the same lucus a
non lucendo principle on which Lord Chesterfield once said his similarly-
called room at Chesterfield House was. Miniatures of members of both
Lord and Lady Crewe's family, old theatrical prints, bijouterie, and the
thousand and one costly trifles that help to furnish a room, are here ; and
here, too, is a marvellous writing-table in marqueterie, the work of the
great Andr^ BouUe.
There are, too, several pictures of great interest in this room, among
which I must particularly note a small but very fine portrait of Miss
Emma Crewe by Gainsborough, and a portrait of Fanny Burney by
Downman, by whom there is another head of a young girl, not impro-
bably, though the fact is not stated, one of the numerous portraits of the
ladies of the Crewe family, which the artist is known to have executed
during the year 1777. There is, besides, a noticeable portrait of Lord
Chesterfield, as well as " Le Jardin d' Amour," by Rubens, a small copy
or possibly a replica of the celebrated picture now in the Prado, which
Philip IV. of Spain caused to be hung in his bedroom ; and there is also
Clarkson Stanfield's " Bridge of Angers," among other works which help to
beautify the room.
From the Boudoir one enters the Library, which until recently was
rather sombre with its black ebony bookcases and dark wall-paper, but
which has now been converted into a bright, almost gay, room. The
relatively few books here are chiefly those required for reference and
official work. Lord Crewe's fine Library being at Fryston, but there are
two pictures of peculiar interest in this room ; one is the portrait of
John Keats at Wentworth Place, seated and holding a book, by Severn,
another example of which is in the National Portrait Gallery ; the other,
Stone's drawing of Rogers, Mrs. Norton, and Mrs. Phipps, sitting talking
round a table ; and the three-quarter-length portrait of Miss Amabel
Crewe, afterwards Lady Houghton, mother of the present Lord Crewe,
by Sir William Boxall, has an intrinsic interest in this house, although
as a work of art it can only be considered as mediocre.
The Dining Room on the west side of the house is a similar room
to the Library, but much longer. Two pillars support the ceihng at the
back of the room ; and here again, as in the Library, a change of decorative
note has largely improved the lighting and general appearance of the
apartment, which was formerly panelled with a dado in rich dark oak, and
possessed a sideboard of massive proportions and other decorations en
suite ; now, however, white is the prevailing tone, and an air of hghtness
has been given to the room which has greatly added to its charm.
Among the pictures which hang here, is a portrait of George Canning,
CREWE HOUSE 229
as a young man, by Hickey, and George, Prince of Wales, by Hoppner ;
and there is an interesting work by Stubbs representing R. S. Milnes,
Esq., M.P., on horseback ; although it is the two Romney portraits of
the first Lord Crewe, and of Mrs. Shore Milnes, that will chiefly attract
the lover of the beautiful in art.
Compared with many of the great mansions I am dealing with in
this book, Crewe House itself is relatively small, and its contents, beautiful
as they are, few in number ; but, on the other hand, the area occupied by
the mansion and its gardens is, considering its position in the heart of
Mayfair, an unusually large one, and the residence has been for the last
hundred and seventy years such a landmark, having existed at a time
when all between it and Piccadilly was as yet unbuilt over, that it has,
I think, for these reasons alone a right to be included among the great
houses of London ; added to this is the fact that from its connection
with Lord WTiarncliffe in the past, and the Earl of Crewe in the present,
it is able to take its place among those mansions which may be regarded
as political centres, whose walls have listened to history in the making,
and whose floors have felt the tread of generations of illustrious feet.
As I write there is an attempt to sell Crewe House, with its gardens
extending to an area of over 29,000 square feet ; and as the particulars
tell me, comprising the choicest site in Mayfair, and one of the most
important in the west-end. Should the old house and its unique grounds
pass into the hands of some one buying it as a residence, all will be well ;
but if, as is more likely when we look round and see what has happened
in analogous cases — ^in that of Harcourt House, for instance — the property
is purchased for building development, then we may expect one day
in the near future to see palatial flats dominating this spot and perhaps
equalling in solidity, and more than equalling in size, Sunderland House
opposite. In this case what has been here set down about Crewe House
will, I hope, serve to recall its past outlines, and the interest of its contents
to those to whom it has for long been a landmark, and to those who have
so often gathered together within its hospitable walls.
Nothing is so difficult to remember as the appearance of a building
that has been demolished ; the mind, apparently, is so much more capable
of receiving new impressions than of retaining old ones ; and it is for
this reason that any attempt to preserve the features of some building
which is likely to become the victim of time's destroying hand, contributes
something to the rehabilitation of the ever-changing features of our great
city. J. T. Smith was one of the few, in an earlier day, who realised this
fact, which luckily in these times is thought more important than was
2 30 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
formerly the case ; and nowadays, when the various societies that exist
for this purpose are unable to actually preserve intact some threatened
landmark, there is at least an endeavour made to perpetuate, by pen and
pencil, the vanishing points of interest in the metropolis. It is as
important that this should be done in the west-end as in the City
itself ; but there are still many who seem to think that architectural and
historical interest almost ceases this side of Charing Cross ; forgetting
that much of the best work of the Adams, to mention but these, was done
in this region ; and unmindful of the fact that the social life under the
Georges, with which so much of this western part of the town is
identified, is practically synonymous with the historic annals of that
fascinating period.
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232 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
kitchen and stables are ill placed, and the corridore worse, having no
report to the wings they joyne to. For the rest, the fore-court is noble ;
so are the stables ; and above all the gardens, which are incomparable
by reason of the inequalitie of the ground, and a pretty -piscina. The
holly hedges on the terrace I advised the planting of. The porticos are
in imitation of a house described by Palladio, but it happens to be the
worst in his booke ; though my good friend, Mr. Hugh May, his Lord-
ship's architect, effected it."
This description can be supplemented by that given in the New View
of London for 1708, in which we are also told that " the house is built of
brick, adorned with stone pilasters, and an entablature and pitched pedi-
ment, all of the Corinthian order, under which is a figure of Britannia
carved in stone. At some distance on the east side is the kitchen and
laundry, and on the west side stables and lodging-rooms, which adjoin
the mansion by brick walls, and two circular galleries, each elevated on
columns of the Corinthian order, where are two ambulatories."
The reader will probably consider this extract sufficient. How the
writer revels in his " entablatures " and his " Corinthian orders " ! With
what unction he mouths out, ore rotundo, his " pitched pediments," and
his " ambulatories " ! Was he, one wonders, paid like Dumas, by the line ?
Evelyn, as we have seen, found no httle fault with old Berkeley House ;
Ralph, on the other hand, considers it not only " very elegant," but goes
so far as to say that it was " quite worthy of the masterhand of Inigo
Jones," which, when we remember Ralph's habitual fault-finding with
nearly every building in London, is extraordinarily high praise ; while
Macky notes that at the back, it " hath a beautiful vista to Hampstead
and the adjacent country " !
Lord Berkeley of Stratton died in 1678, but his widow continued to
reside in the house. It is probable that the noble grounds, which, we
must remember, formerly not only contained Devonshire House and its
gardens as we know them, but also the whole of Berkeley Square and the
adjacent streets, had attracted the eyes of the builders even then, and that
tempting offers had been made to Lady Berkeley ; and, indeed, an entry
by Evelyn in his Diary for June 12, 1684, confirms this. Says he: "I
went to advise and give directions about the building two streets in
Berkeley Gardens, reserving the house and as much of the garden as the
breadth of the house. In the meantime, I could not but deplore that
sweete place (by far the most noble gardens, courts, and accommodations,
stately porticoes, &c., anywhere about towne) should be so much
straightened and turned into tenements." He, however, finds some
small consolation in the fact that Lord Clarendon's great place had
DEVONSHIRE HOUSE 233
met with a worse fate, and considers that it afforded " some excuse for
my Lady Berkeley's resolution of letting out her ground also."
The price paid staggered even Evelyn's calm philosophy, " advancing
neere ;^iooo per ann. in mere ground rents " ; " to such a mad intemper-
ance was the age come of building about a citty," he exclaims, " by far
too disproportionate already to the nation." What would he have said
to the size of London of to-day, and the prices cheerfully paid for ground
in it ?
A few years later Berkeley House was to have a royal occupant, for
the Princess Anne, resisting every attempt made by her sister Queen
Mary to induce her to dismiss her confidante. Lady Marlborough,
was forced to leave her lodgings in the Cockpit, and on doing so established
herself here, with her husband, Prince George of Denmark ; ^ although
she did not entirely give up her former residence, still using it as a lodging
for some of her servants.
A letter written by the Princess to Lady Marlborough, and dated
May 22, 1692, from Sion House, indicates the moment when she took
possession of Berkeley House. " Some time next week, I believe, it will
be time for me to go to London, to make an end of that business of
Berkeley House." She had been in negotiation for renting it during
the quarrel with her sister, and when this became acute she hastened
to complete the matter. Among the Lansdowne papers in the British
Museum, there is an amusing squib, entitled " The Bellman of Piccadilly's
Verses to the Princess Anne of Denmark," which refers to her Royal
Highness's residence in Berkeley House ; the lines run thus : —
" Welcome, great princess ! to this lowly place,
Where injured royalty must hide its face ;
Your praise each day by every man is sung,
And in the night by me shall here be rung.
God bless our Queen ! and yet I may, moreover.
Own you our queen in Berkeley Street and Dover :
May you and your great prince live numerous years !
This is the subject of our loyal prayers."
Here, says Miss Strickland, " the Princess, divested of every mark of her
royal rank, continued to live, where she and her favourite amused them-
selves with superintending their nurseries, playing at cards, and talking
treason against Queen Mary and ' her Dutch Cahban,' as they called
the hero of Nassau."
' During the Princess's residence here a silver cistern, valued at ^750, was stolen, and the
theft was advertised in No. 94 of The Postman for 1695. The cistern was afterwards found
in the possession of a distiller in Twickenham, who was tried and convicted of the theft.
234 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Thus matters went on, until the fatal illness of the Queen, when
Berkeley House was agog with excitement, for the Princess Anne was
heir to the throne, and although she personally held no communication
with the Court, the news of the Queen's illness, and aU the phases of
her malady, filtered through from the servants at the Palace to those in
Piccadilly. Mary breathed her last on December 28, 1694 (old style),*
but on the preceding Christmas Day, when her state was known to be
hopeless, vast crowds of courtiers and time-servers, who had hitherto
treated Anne with studied neglect, flocked to pay their court to the rising
sun at Berkeley House. Mutatis mutandis, it was not dissimilar from
that " rush of the whole Court " rushing as in a wager, with a sound
" terrible and absolutely like thunder," with which the French Court
hastened from the death-bed of Louis the well-beloved to greet his
successor ! An amusing incident is said to have occurred on one of
these occasions. Lord Carnarvon, a half-witted peer, was annoyed at
being surrounded by all these tuft-hunters, and as he stood close to Anne,
took the opportunity of remarking aloud to her : " I hope your Royal High-
ness will remember that I always came to wait on you when none of this
company did." No little amusement was caused by this, but some of
the courtiers were put a good deal out of countenance by it.
At last even William recognised that further open hostility would be
useless, and with a letter of condolence to him from Anne, the breach, if
not actually closed, was to all appearances, cemented. He received her at
Kensington Palace, where, owing to her then weak state of health, she was
carried in her chair actually into the royal presence ; he bestowed the
Garter on her son, the Duke of Gloucester ; and he offered her St. James's
as a residence. It would appear that the Princess took advantage of this
last favour in the spring of 1696, when her connection with Berkeley
House came to an end.
In the following year the property was purchased by the first Duke
of Devonshire. William Cavendish, the son of the third Earl of Devon-
shire, was born in 1641, and succeeded to the earldom in 1684 ; he had
acted as cup-bearer to the Queen on the occasion of James the Second's
coronation, but this did not prevent his enjoying the favour of WiUiam,
under whom he filled various high offices, and by whom he was created
Marquis of Harrington and Duke of Devonshire, in 1694. He married
Lady Mary Butler, daughter of the first Duke of Ormonde, and was con-
sidered by Macky, " the finest and handsomest gentleman of his time."
Burnet, too, notices the " softness in his exterior deportment," but adds
that " there was nothing within that was answerable."
' The French date her death January 7, 1695.
DEVONSHIRE HOUSE 235
The purchase of Berkeley House seems to have been attended by
some initial difficulties, as it appears that the Marquis of Normanby
had also been in treaty for it, and indeed considered that he had
bought it. Narcissus Luttrell, whose diary is a storehouse for this sort
of information, sheds some light on the matter. Thus we learn that, on
December 5, 1696, the Lords debated the question, and referred it to a
committee which was to make its report the following week. On the
loth of the month, " their Lordships debated the matter of privilege
between the Duke of Devon, Marquess of Normanby, and the Lord
Berkley about the sale of Berkly House, and ordered them all to waive
their privilege after this sessions ; but the proceedings in law may go on,
which the Duke of Devon has already done." The Chancery proceedings,
however, seem to have been as much delayed as those of the House of
Lords, and on May 13, 1697, we find the case being put off "till next term."
However, on July 7, a long discussion took place between the Duke and
the Marquis about Berkeley House " (both pretending to have bought
it), but it proving very tedious, the council for the former only was heard."
On October 28, another long hearing was held before the Lord Chancellor
and the two Chief Justices, and after counsel had been fully heard, judgment
was reserved for a fortnight ; but, adds Luttrell, " most beleive twil be
for his grace," and so it turned out, for on January I, 1697-8, Luttrell
concludes with this entry : " Thursday last the lord chancellor, assisted
by two chief justices, further heard the matter depending between the
Duke of Devon and the Marquesse of Normanby about the purchase of
Berkley House ; and after mature deliberation, decreed it for the Duke
of Devon."
On the following 31st of March the Duke entertained the King at
dinner here ; and his grace must have set out from here, when he met
Colonel Culpepper, at " the auction-house in St. Alban's Street," on
June 30, in the same year, and caned him, " for being troublesome
to him in the last reign " ; while Luttrell notes that Count Tallard, the
French Ambassador, dined at Berkeley House with the Duke, on
January 3, 1699-1700. It is, indeed, but natural to suppose that the
place was as much the resort of fashion and the centre of hospitality in
William the Third's reign, as its successor, Devonshire House, has been
in our own day.
The first Duke of Devonshire died here, on August 18, 1707, having
received the last rites of the Church at the hands of the Bishop of Ely,
and having left " orders to pay his just debts, and for that end has all
his Jewells, and the finest sett of plate in England," says Luttrell.
The second Duke, who occupied almost as many high offices as his
236 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
father, succeeded to the property, and when in London Uved at Devon-
shire House, as it had now begun to be called. Here he died, on June
4, 1729, when he, in turn, was succeeded by his son, the third Duke,
during whose tenure of the title the disastrous fire which entirely
destroyed the house, occurred here. Some alterations were in progress,
when, owing to the carelessness of one of the workmen employed, a
glue-pot which had been left on the fire, boiled over, and the escape
of flaming liquid set fire to some woodwork. Every effort was made
to extinguish the flames, and to save the more valuable contents, and
luckily the library, pictures, and other objects of art were rescued,
mainly through the help of a body of the Guards, who, under the
direction of the Earl of Albemarle, not only saved many rarities from
the flames, but also preserved them from the hardly less rapacious hands
of the mob which had gathered round the burning pile. Among the
crowd was Frederick, Prince of Wales, as well as m.any people of dis-
tinction who, in those days, were always attracted by such a scene.
Ralph a -propos of this catastrophe says : " Had his grace's servants re-
collected their master's motto, Cavendo tutus, it (the house) had still re-
tained its ancient splendour ; but as they did not understand the beauties
of Inigo Jones's ^ architecture, so they were not concerned for its
preservation " ; and he adds, " 'Tis our happiness to have remembered
it as it formerly stood, great in simplicity, and elegant in plainness."
The loss to the Duke was estimated at not less than ^30,000, while, in
addition, the statue of Britannia, which I have before mentioned as sur-
mounting the portico, and which had cost ;^3500, fell from its pedestal
some days after the actual conflagration, and was irretrievably broken.
But perhaps what was most deplorable was the loss of the staircase paint-
ings, the work of Laguerre, which it was not humanly possible to save.
Curiously enough, however, another quasi mural painting was rescued ;
this was the violin which John Vander Vaart had painted against one of
the doors of the house, and which, says Walpole, deceived every one who
saw it into supposing it an actual instrument ; a curiosity that is now
preserved at Chatsworth.
This disastrous fire occurred on October 16, 1733, and in the Daily
Journal for the following day, a long and graphic account of the circum-
stance is given. Only a few months before the catastrophe, the Duke
gave a ball at Devonshire House, which is mentioned in one of Lady
Wentworth's letters to her son ; where, after naming some of the com-
pany, she details as follows, the sort of refreshment provided for our
forefathers on such occasions : " We had a very handsome supper, viz.,
' Meaning that May, its architect, had taken hints from the greater master.
DEVONSHIRE HOUSE 237
at the upper end cold chicken, next to that a dish of cake, parch'd
almonds, sapp biskets, next to that, a dish of tarts and cheesecakes, next
to that a great custard, and next to that another dish of biskets, parch'd
almonds, and preserved apricocks, and next a quarter of lamb " ! There is
no doubt that this was but one of many such entertainments which the
first three Dukes of Devonshire gave here ; for not only their natural
incHnation towards hospitality, but also the great positions they respec-
tively occupied, would, in a sense, have made such gatherings necessary,
as well as pleasurable to them.
On the destruction of his residence the third Duke at once set about
the erection of the present mansion. He selected as his architect, WilUam
Kent,^ who produced a building which is not very likely to add to his
reputation ; and Ralph is bitterly sarcastic, as is his playful way, over its
elevation. " It is spacious, and so are the East India Company's Ware-
houses," says he, " and both are equally deserving praise." The critic
also falls foul of the wall which fronts Piccadilly, which indeed was severe
enough before the happy thought of placing the beautiful gates from
Chiswick House added both interest and dignity to it.
Kent received ;^iooo for his plan and elevations of the new house,
the building of which cost, according to Pennant, twenty times that sum.
The topographer once went over the mansion, under the guidance of
Dr. Lort, the then librarian, on which occasion he made a few desultory
notes of the pictures which chiefly attracted his notice, confining his
attention, however, to the portraits, which, he says, " are so numerous that
I must leave the complete list to those who have more opportunity of
forming it than I had." Among those he does mention was that,
attributed to Tintoretto, of Marc Antonio de Dominis, Archbishop of
Spalatro, the ItaUan theologian and natural philosopher, who came to
this country, and having abjured the Roman Catholic reUgion, became
master of the Savoy and Dean of Windsor, when, again retracting, he
was ordered out of the country, and died miserably in prison at Rome,
in 1624." Titian's portrait of himself; Rembrandt's Jewish Rabbi;
the whole length in armour of Philip II., by Titian ; Sir Thomas
Browne ^ with his wife and four daughters, by Dobson, which last
• Kent is too well known to require any notice here, but I may remind the reader that he
designed Holkham, among many other works, the plan and elevations of which were published
by Hrettingham as his own, much to Walpole's disgust. Kent died at Burlington House
in 1748.
^ This picture is now at Chatsworth. As the late Mr. Arthur Strong pointed out, it could
not be by Tintoretto, as the painter died in 1594, and Antonio was born in 1566. In The
Masterpieces in the Duke of Devonshiri^s Collection it is attributed to an unknown painter of
the North Italian School.
' This still hangs in the Dining Room at Devonshire House.
238 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
picture reminds our author of a quaint passage in the Religio Medici;
and Vandyck's presentment (now at Chatsworth) of Arthur Goodwin, the
friend of John Hampden, are among the portraits that Pennant notes,
but he makes no attempt to describe the works by the great Italian
masters, which then formed, according to his own showing, " by far the
finest private collection in England."
The builder and internal beautifier of Devonshire House died in
1755, and was succeeded by his son, the fourth Duke, who, for his uncom-
promising hostility to Lord Bute, was called by that statesman's pro-
tectress, the Princess-Dowager of Wales, " King of the Whigs." He,
indeed, inaugurated the political traditions which, during his successor's
day, made Devonshire House the great centre of Whiggism. The
Duke, who had married Lady Charlotte Boyle, daughter and heiress of
the third Earl of Burlington (the architect Earl), died in 1764, when
his son, the fifth Duke, reigned in his stead. The pencil of Sir Joshua ^
and the pen of Wraxall have left us pictures of his personality. The
latter speaks of his figure as being " tall and stately," and remarks that
" his manners were always calm and unruffled." By birth and tradition
he was head of the Whig faction ; but the more active part of dissemi-
nating Liberal views and preaching the Liberal propaganda, was played
by his beautiful first Duchess (for he was twice married),^ the celebrated
Georgiana, daughter of John, first Earl Spencer.
There has been far too much written about this beautiful and amiable
woman to make it necessary for me here to recapitulate her talents, her
loveliness, or her fame. She reigned as a queen, not only by virtue of
her beauty, but because of her gracious manner, her quick sympathy, her
splendid enthusiasm. At a time when it was supposed to become great
ladies to affect boredom and ennui, the Duchess devoured London with
activity in support of her friends and her principles. Fox won his
celebrated Westminster election by her strenuous exertions. We aU
know the story of the kiss by which she wrung a vote from a reluctant
butcher.
" Condemn not, prudes, fair Devon's plan
In giving Steel a kiss,
In such a cause for such a man
She could not do amiss,"
sang one whose admiration for Fox was only equalled by that for his
beautiful supporter. When Fox was returned, it was at Devonshire
• The famous Reynolds portrait of the Duchess with her child is now at Chatsworth.
^ The second time, in 1809, to EHzabeth, second daughter of the fourth Earl of Bristol.
DEVONSHIRE HOUSE 239
House, where the Prince of Wales, and a number of the first Whig
famiUes in the kingdom were assembled, that the apotheosis of the " man
of the people " took place ; and there it was that all that was most
brilliant, in intellect or fashion, came as to the shrine of a tutelary goddess.
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, did what no other woman could
have done with unsullied reputation in those days when Gillray and
Rowlandson caricatured features and misrepresented actions in every
sort of gross and indecent caricature. Her power over women was so
great that she succeeded in abohshing " hoops " and introducing feathers ;
so lasting over men, that the fastidious Walpole records how " her
youth, figure, glowing good-nature, sense, lively and modest familiarity,
make her a phenomenon " ; and, when she died untimely at the height
of her beauty and fame, George, Prince of Wales, could say, " We have
lost the best bred woman in England " ; and Charles James Fox exclaim,
" We have lost the gentlest heart ! "
The "beautiful Duchess" died on March 30, 1806, and apart
from the influence she wielded alike over the minds and hearts of her
generation, she left a permanent mark of her individuahty in Devonshire
House itself, where a small room, decorated in blue and silver, was de-
signed by her. When her son, the sixth Duke, succeeded his father in 181 1,
he practically redecorated the whole of the interior of the house, with
the exception of this room which he preserved in the same state as it
had been during his mother's lifetime.
The sixth Duke well kept up the traditions of his illustrious family
and the great house with which its name is so closely identified. Of
courteous and noble manners, particularly handsome and attractive,
and standing over six feet in height, his friendship was extended, like
that of Lord Lansdowne, to those whose talents alone enabled them to
figure in the world of fashion, of which he was one of the leaders. Lord
Macaulay says that he never saw " so princely an air and manner," and at
George the Fourth's coronation, where the Duke bore the orb, the same
authority states that " he looked as if he came to be crowned instead of
his master." Like all the chiefs of his family, he held a variety of great
offices, which he filled with dignity and success. " No man was more
looked up to by his own adherents and his family," says Henry Greville,
" and few men in the same position will have left a more kindly recollec-
tion " ; and Charles Greville remarks that " he was very clever and very
comical, with a keen sense of humour, frequently very droll with his
intimate friends, and his letters were always very amusing."
It was during his reign that Devonshire House was the scene of that
notable performance of Bulwer-Lytton's comedy, " Not so bad as we
240 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
seem," which was got up for the benefit of the Guild of Literature and
Art, on May i6, 1 851 ; the Queen and Prince Albert being among the
distinguished audience, and Charles Dickens, appearing as Lord Wilmot,
" a young man at the head of the mode," a part that apparently did
not suit him, as Home remarks that he appeared " more like the captain
of a Dutch privateer ! " The performance took place in the great Ball
Room, which at that time was then decorated in white and gold, the
walls being hung in blue and gold brocade.
The works of art that now hang in this splendid apartment comprise —
" The Adoration of the Magi," by Paul Veronese, a superb rendering
of a subject that has exercised the skill of nearly all the great masters.
Waagen very properly considers this work as one of the painter's most
notable achievements, and likens its clear warm tones to those of Titian
himself, and there is no doubt but that this high praise is fully justified.
The characteristic attitude of the chief of the Magi (obviously a portrait),
who kneels before the infant Christ, is no less noticeable than the natural
pose of Joseph, who leans over Mary's shoulder, and seems to reveal a
curious wonder at the scene.
Another remarkable work here is Caravaggio's " Guitar and Flute
Players," executed with a breadth and certainty of draughtsmanship
worthy of Velasquez himself ; there is also a somewhat similar work,
representing a group of musicians, which has been attributed to this
master, but it falls far short of the " Guitar and Flute Players " in beauty
and power, and should probably be more rightly assigned to Mattia Preti,
called II Calabrese. Close by hangs a small but most exquisite example
of Nicholas Poussin, his " Shepherds in Arcady," a picture very similar
to that in the Louvre, but if anything a finer specimen of his art.
The subdued tones, browns and yellows, which form the colour scheme
of this work, are treated in the most effective way ; but it is unfortu-
nate that the canvas is placed so high up on the wall that some of its
beauties are apt to escape any but those whose attention is specifically
drawn to it.
But fine as are the canvases I have mentioned, there are two in this
apartment which may be regarded as masterpieces of their respective
painters ; one is " The Holy Family with St. Elizabeth," by Rubens, which
hangs over one of the mantelpieces, and in which, although much of the
work is probably that of pupils, more of the great man's own touch appears
than is always the case with his large pictures ; and the other the con-
summate Jordaens, representing Frederick, Prince of Orange and his
Princess, but long supposed to be portraits of Van Zurpele, Burgo-
master of Deist and Councillor to the Prince of Orange, and his wife.
DEVONSHIRE HOUSE 241
The former picture is of most exquisite quality — how, being the work
of the great Flemish artist, could it well be otherwise ! — but it is in his
middle manner, if I may so term it, after he had thrown off the restraint
of the somewhat hard and formal methods which were in vogue in his
youth, and by which many of his earlier conceptions were to some extent
trammelled ; and before certainty of touch and sureness of treatment
had seduced him into that more florid style which has blinded many to
his transcendent merits. The Jordaens is probably that painter's finest
achievement in portraiture. For long its beauty of colouring, its sure-
ness of line, and that something which is as difficult to describe as it is
to communicate, which is the very spirit of tightness, caused it to be
ascribed to Rubens himself ; certainly the master could not have done
better even at his best ; and here the great pupil, rising to the heights
which the master dominated, in this work at least equalled the greater
man on his own ground. The late Mr. Arthur Strong suggests that the
picture probably came into the possession of the Devonshire family at
the time of the negotiations between the Whig leaders and the Prince
of Orange, afterwards Wilham III., which led to the Revolution of 1688.
The picture is of great size, and is let into the wall, being surrounded
by a most beautiful and elaborate carved and gilt frame — a frame that
would make an indifferent work appear ridiculous, and which is massive
enough to dwarf any but a most consummate work of art.
After these two masterpieces, the other pictures in the room, fine as
many of them are, seem almost commonplace ; but this is really anything
but the case, and Andrea del Sarto's " Holy Family " ; " Diana and her
Nymphs," by Carlo Maratti, and Le Sueur's rather decorative than
intrinsically beautiful " Solomon and the Queen of Sheba," are all
excellent examples of these painters. One other work deserves a word ;
it is the portrait of a young man, which has recently been ascribed to
Titian. It has lately been cleaned, and its luminous tones may well have
been produced by the brush of the great Venetian at the period in which
he produced his " Man with the Glove," in the Louvre. If it be not by
Titian, then it is the production of one who, for the nonce, painted as
well as the master could have done.
Apart from the pictorial treasures in the Ball Room, there is a wealth
of beautiful things, porcelain and furniture, in this splendid apart-
ment, which, with its elaborate gilding, and ceiling decoration, is in itself
a thing to wonder at, reminding one of those Venetian palaces in which
colour is enriched by gold, and gold takes on a hundred shimmering
tints from adjacent colour.
In the Red Drawing Room, which takes its name from the tones of
Q
242 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
the brocaded-silk wall-hangings, another artistic banquet awaits us ;
but I can only mention one or two of the more important pictures. One
of these is the portrait, three-quarter-length, of a young girl, which has
been for long attributed to Velasquez, but which, on the great authority
of Signer Baruete, is now assigned to Mazo, his son-in-law and pupil. The
subject of the picture would seem to be Maze's wife, and in the Wallace
Collection she is to be found again, painted by her father. The Devon-
shire House example is a remarkable tour de force, especially for a painter
whose productions, though uniformly good, can never be said to have
reached the greatest height of artistic endeavour ; its treatment is besides
so similar to Velasquez's manner that it seems to me not improbable
that Mazo may have copied it, or at least integral portions of it, from
some of his father-in-law's work, especially as we know that Mazo's skill
in this direction was so great that Philip IV. ordered him to make copies
of all the finest Venetian paintings in the Royal collection, and that he
performed the task in so masterly a manner that it was impossible to
tell his work from the originals.
Another noticeable picture in this room is the portrait of his daughter,
by Cornelius de Vos. It represents the little girl standing facing the
spectator, in the unaffected attitude of childhood, and holding up her
apron from which peep out some gathered flowers ; the lower part of
the figure may be considered somewhat hard and formal ; there is, too,
something to seek in the drawing of the little podgy hands ; but the head,
with its hair ruffled by the wind, and the speaking eyes which look out
with curious intentness, are a splendid proof of what heights even a lesser
painter can reach when the subject is one after his own heart. ^
In the Red Drawing Room, too, hangs a picture of a man and his
wife, of which the painter is unknown ; but it is so excellent as to make
one wonder at the fact that neither the artist's name nor the frovinance
of the work has been preserved. From the maps and globe introduced
into the canvas, as well as the hard, weather-beaten face of the man, it is
evident that he is a navigator ; and the gentle, somewhat anxious features
of the wife (in which lies the chief beauty of the work) seem to tell of
long periods of solitary anxiety and suspense, now for a time cleared away,
as her husband sits safely beside her, and tells her of the " dangers he had
pass'd."
In this room there is also a portrait of Pope Innocent X., attributed to
Velasquez, but more likely traceable to one of his followers ; it has a
' This picture which was formerly at Chiswick, seems to have once been attributed to
Velasquez, but Lord Ronald Gower, in his Historic Galleries of England (1883), on the
authority of Dr. Richter, assigns it to Alonso Sanchez-Coello.
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DEVONSHIRE HOUSE 243
resemblance to the famous portrait of the ill-favoured pontiff at Apsley
House, and also to that which hangs in the Palazzo Doria, but is much
rougher in treatment, and less sure in draughtsmanship than either of
these masterpieces. The full-length portrait of another Pope, by Carlo
Maratti, hangs close by, and is a fine and soft piece of work curiously
dissimilar in manner to the Innocent X.
But the gems of the Red Drawing Room are the two Rembrandts ;
both portraits of old men, one of whom is shown in full face, and dressed
in the fur-lined cloak which indicated municipal rank ; the other, and
much finer work, representing an old man resting his head on his hand,
and dressed in a furred robe. The glorious golden tones with which
Rembrandt so often suffused his pictures is present in a remarkable degree
in this wonderful canvas. In the absence of any accurate information as
to the identity of the subject, it seems probable that it was painted from
the model who is portrayed by Rembrandt as " The Mathematician,"
now in the Cassel Museum, a work executed about the year 1656.
In an ante-room leading from the Red Drawing Room, hangs a Van
Goyen of unusual power, and depth of impasto ; a Weenix, showing some
cattle among ruins ; and two of Sebastian Ricci's decorative works ;
while " A Bacchante," by Antoine Coypel, is noteworthy as being no
less rich in colouring than beautiful in drawing, although, as was usual
with this painter, the chief figure is portrayed with a theatricality which
gives a certain factitious appearance to the whole composition.
The Dining Room at Devonshire House contains a number of interest-
ing works, among them being that of Sir Thomas Browne's family, which
has been before referred to as having been seen by Pennant, and then attri-
buted to Dobson. I cannot but think, however, that it is more likely
the work of Van Somer, the heads of the two little girls in the centre
of the picture being much more in the style of the Flemish than of the
English painter. There has, too, been a question as to whether the man
in the group represents Sir Thomas or his father ; if the latter be correct,
then the future author of the Religio Medici is the child on the mother's
knee, and as he is known to have had three sisters (the number of the
little girls in the picture), this supposition would seem to be based on
tenable grounds.^ By Lely is the portrait of an architect which hangs
close by. There seems some doubt as to whom this picture actually
represents, and I make the suggestion for what it be worth that it is a
portrait of Caius Gabriel Gibber. It is a particularly fine work, and
1 If the picture is by Van Somer, then the child would be the future Sir Thomas Browne ;
as he was born in 1605, and the painter died in 162 1, whereas Dobson was not bom
till 1610.
244 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Lely did not often reach the heights to which it attains. There are here,
also, several Vandycks, notably the Countess of Carlisle ^ and her young
daughter, the presentment of the child being a perfect piece of painting ;
and two members of the Cavendish family of that period, or at least so
they are said to be, although one of them has a marked resemblance to
the unfortunate Lord Falkland ; an indifferent head of Lord Strafford
hangs over one of the doors, and above the mantelpiece is a good copy
of Vandyck's full-length portrait of Clara Eugenia, daughter of PhiUp IV.
of Spain, and widow of the Archduke Albert. With these is Sir Joshua's
splendid rendering of Lord Richard Cavendish, who was sitting to the
painter on June 3, 1780, when the Gordon rioters first startled the
town.^ Walpole calls this picture " one of the best, if not the best,"
that Reynolds ever painted ; high praise, which, however, is justified
by its beauty and delicacy.
But, notwithstanding this, the gem of the room is the superlatively
great portrait of a man by Franz Hals, which hangs in a corner by one
of the doors. Although not possessing that brio which is so characteristic
of this great master, this dignified and beautifully conceived work is
not the less, perhaps something more, attractive. Whomever it represents,
the actual man seems to be gazing calmly from the canvas, not unpleased,
we may suppose, at the notice which his elaborately embroidered sleeve
(a marvel of skilful technique) evokes. What seems to be the companion
picture, a portrait of a woman, hangs in the Duchess's Boudoir, and
it is a hardly less satisfying work, although the height at which it is
hung detracts seriously from the possibility of a proper consideration
of its merits. It is to be hoped that in any re-arrangement of the
pictures that may be made, these two works will be hung together in the
good light that they deserve.
Among the other pictures in the Boudoir where the Hals hangs, the
chief are of the Dutch school ; thus there are examples of Berghem, an
unusually full and beautiful canvas, and Both, with that ever warm glow
over the landscape which he borrowed from Italy ; a pair of particularly
fine Canalettis ; characteristic scenes in Venice ; and the interior of a
church by Steenwyck, showing that remarkable architectural skill in draw-
ing, and clever management of shadows in which his chief rivals are the
Peter Neefs of his own day and the Bosboom of ours. There are besides,
among others, a Wouvermanns, with his inevitable white horse ; and
' She was Lady Margaret Russell, third daughter of Francis, Earl of Bedford.
^ In Sir Joshua's List of Si/Zers for this year, Lord Richard has against his name the
words, " on a visit to Lord Darnley at Cobham " ; so it is probable that some sittings were
given there, when the painter was a fellow guest, a not infrequent practice with Reynolds.
DEVONSHIRE HOUSE 245
ships in a calm, which is labelled Van de Velde, but is more probably one
of Abraham Storck's masterly seascapes.
The Green Drawing Room is notable as possessing two of the finest
Salvator Rosas in existence ; one, a beautiful landscape, with remarkable
cloud eflFects that might even have reconciled Ruskin to the work of this
painter, and free from those exaggerated shadows that so often detract
from the beauty of his work ; the other, the famous " Jacob's Ladder," than
which, it is probable, he never produced, nor could produce, anything
finer. There is also a very fine " Samson and Delilah," by Tintoretto,
in which the painter approaches as nearly to Titian in warmth of
colouring as it was possible perhaps for him ever to do. As Mr. Strong,
in his prefatory note to The Masterpieces in the Duke of Devonshire'' s
Collection, remarks, " While others seem to be content to recite the pre-
liminaries or the sequel of an occurrence, Tintoretto seizes the critical
point. Moreover, he is apt, as in this case, to lower the centre of gravity
until all the figures are drawn into a downward curve."
For the rest, there are a pair of portraits by Rubens in his earliest
manner, with little promise of the daring brush-sweep that was to char-
acterise his later touch; and examples of Ruysdael, Wouvermanns, and
Berghem, as well as an interesting work by Pietro da Cortona.
Such rooms as the late Duke's Sitting Room, lined with bookcases, and
still bearing evidences of the activity and innumerable interests that have,
alas ! so recently been cut short ; as well as the late Duke's Bed Room,
are too much in the nature of private apartments to allow of any detailed
treatment ; but I may note, in the former, the beautiful miniature
full-length portrait of the Dowager Duchess, as Duchess of Manchester,
which stands on one of the tables ; and the wonderful Empire furni-
ture in the latter, as well as the fine landscape, suffused with the Hght
of the dying sun, by Annibale Caracci, and the very curious present-
ment of Gabrielle d'Estrees, her sister, and child with its nurse, which
as a piece of historical portraiture has a value that it can hardly claim as
a work of art.
But of all the splendid rooms in Devonshire House, not even excepting
the Great Ball Room, the Saloon is in point of elaborate decoration the
most remarkable. We seem here to be entering one of those gorgeous
apartments which the wealth and luxury of Venice, at its great period,
could alone conceive, and the pencil of Veronese was alone able to per-
petuate. But, notwithstanding the massive nature of the gilding and
carving, the colossal mirrors framed on Brobdingnagian principles, the
domed ceiling rich with painted wreaths and festoons of flowers and a
thousand arabesques, in the midst of which the ducal coronet and crest
2 4-6 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
is displayed, and the " Cavendo Tutus" the Cavendish family motto,
seems to take on itself another significance by reason of the magnificence
which has resulted from the systematic following of its advice, the room
has no appearance of heaviness, no trace of being over-loaded by decorative
artifices ; and this is undoubtedly due to the fact that its proportions
are so perfect, as well they may be, when we know that Kent designed
it, and Lord Burlington gave his consummate advice on its arrangement
and embellishment ; indeed, it is possible that the Saloon is the most
complete and characteristic specimen extant of Kent's talent and his
chief patron's refined taste. A few portraits hang here as sofra portas,
notably the well-known three-quarter-length of the first Duke of Devon-
shire by Sir Godfrey Kneller ; Lord and Lady Burlington by the same
painter ; Dr. Tillotson, and a portrait of, I suggest in the absence of
authoritative information, the second Duke of Ormonde.
Beyond those I have specifically mentioned there are numbers of
fine pictures scattered through this great palace, to which nothing short
of a complete catalogue could do justice ; but, in spite of the number
of canvases that hang on the walls, the Devonshire collection as a whole
must be studied not only here but at Chatsworth, and in half-a-dozen
other princely residences belonging to the head of the Cavendish family.
Thus at Chatsworth is now to be seen — for it was some time ago removed
from Devonshire House — the original Liber Veritatis of Claude de
Lorraine ; about which, although it be rather outside my subject, I must
say a word.
This remarkable collection of drawings owed its origin to the fact
that even during Claude's lifetime his works were so highly esteemed
and sought after, that it paid many artists to copy his pictures, and to
pass off spurious paintings as genuine examples of his brush. In order,
therefore, to leave an absolute test of the genuineness of his own work,
Claude made these sketches, so that copies might at once be known by
their not being included among these drawings. On the back of each
is his monogram, the place where the original was painted, and generally
the name of the patron for whom it was executed, while he not infrequently
gives the date of the year in which it was completed, and never fails to
set his " Claudio fecit " upon the work. On the back of the first drawing
appear these words in a curious melange of Italian and bad French,
written by the painter himself : " Andi lo dagosto 1677. Ce livre
Anpartien a moy que je faict durant ma vie Claudio Gill6, dit le
Loraine. A Roma ce 23 Aos 1680." We may smile at the indifferent
linguistic skill displayed, but the value of this record is beyond com-
putation. The fate of this invaluable volume is a sad commentary on
DEVONSHIRE HOUSE 247
the value of testamentary wishes. Claude left in his will, directions that
the book should remain for ever as an heirloom in his family, and his first
descendants so carefully regarded his desire that although Cardinal
d'Estr^es, the French Ambassador at Rome, did everything he could to
get possession of it, he signally failed. Later, however, the book passed
to heirs who cared so little either for Claude's wishes or fame, that they
sold the work to a French jeweller for 200 scudi — a mere nothing !
The Frenchman, in turn, disposed of it to a Dutch dealer, from whom
it passed into the collection of the Duke of Devonshire.
Besides this rarity there used to be preserved at Devonshire House
volumes of engravings by Marc Antonio and other great masters of
the engraver's art ; and among the books, the Kemble collection of early
English plays, for which the sixth Duke gave what now seems an absurdly
low price — ;^iooo — which was originally housed here, is now also at
Chatsworth.
Apart from these rarities, the contents of Devonshire House — the
wonderful Italian cabinets, the porcelain, the Sevres and Chelsea, &c.,
and the beautiful French furniture, of practically all the great periods,
from that of Louis Quatorze to that of the first Empire — represent
not only immense wealth, but much that is best in the artistic develop-
ment of many centuries and divers countries.
On the garden front of the house is the great semicircular addition
designed by Wyatt, which contains the famous circular staircase, with
its gilded iron-work, and its handrail of glass sometimes mistaken for
crystal, and up which so many notable people have passed on those occa-
sions when semi-royal functions have taken place beneath this hospitable
and splendid roof.
The grounds at the back of Devonshire House are an excellent specimen
of what artistic landscape gardening can effect, even in London, where there
is, as here, sufficient material to work on. They have, too, the advantage
of being bounded on the north by those of Lansdowne House, which
help to carry on the continuity of verdure which in summer spreads
itself before the windows of the mansion. The division of the two
properties is formed by Lansdowne Passage, running from Berkeley Street
to Curzon Street, at either end of which short cut, which, by-the-bye, is
much below the street level and is entered by steps, are the iron bars
set up at the end of the eighteenth century, in consequence of a high-
wayman having ridden his horse along it and up these steps, and thus
escaping his pursuers.
For many years the Piccadilly front of Devonshire House was as much
hidden by a blank wall as was old Harcourt House ; but in 1897 the
248 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
beautiful gates which now so greatly improve it, and are such a feature
at this point of the thoroughfare, were brought here from the ducal
suburban residence — villa was the former inadequate style of such places,
beloved of early topographers — at Chiswick. Not always did they bear
the arms of the Cavendish family, with its punning motto, for they
originally contained the crest of the Percevals, and adorned the residence
of the second Lord Egmont at Turnham Green, which property after-
wards passed into the possession of Lord Heathfield, the well-known
soldier, and Governor of Gibraltar. On his death the house gradually
fell into neglect, and was finally demolished in 1838, when the gates
were purchased by the sixth Duke of Devonshire, and set up at the
entrance to Chiswick House, where they remained until their removal
to their present position.
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250 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
streams which met where the Marble Arch now stands, gradually gave
place to the more euphonious and appropriate Park Lane ; but " Lane "
it has always been, and probably will always be, in spite of the inappro-
priateness of such a designation for the most fashionable residential street
in London. To-day as we walk along it we can see for ourselves what
a substantial claim it has to be considered in this light. Even its small
houses, and many are mere wedges as it were slipped in between more
commodious residences, have an air of being prosperous and self-satisfied ;
its large mansions, Londonderry House, Grosvenor House, Brook House,
and Dudley House, or the more modern erections for which South African
finance has been responsible, such as the late Mr. Barnato's house, now
the residence of Sir Edward Sassoon, and the late Mr. Alfred Beit's
reproduction of an old English country mansion, are a sight to see, as
well as an objective for vituperation on the part of stump-orators in
the adjacent Park who settle the affairs of the nation with apparently
complete satisfaction to themselves. But of all the great houses in Park
Lane, none equal — none, indeed, approach, in splendour — Dorchester
House, which may, I think, without hyperbole, be considered the
finest private dwelling in London, as well as London's most graceful and
beautiful attempt at modern domestic architecture.
It stands in magnificent isolation, so far, indeed, as any building in a
crowded and fashionable part of our great city can do so ; it seems
to have shouldered out of existence streets and smaller tenements ; it
sets a proud foot on the very thoroughfare itself ; sure of its power to
impress, it appears to court observation and to challenge critical scrutiny ;
and yet if it can be supposed capable of wonder, it cannot but wonder
at finding itself — an Italian palace — placed under an alien sky, and to
see, not the Tiber or the Arno, but the mud of London flowing at its
feet. It is almost sad to see this exotic from a fairer clime ;
" Where the baked cicala dies of drouth,"
taking on, year by year, a deeper tone of melancholy from the manifold
accretions of the great city, and vainly hoping, as it were, to once
more return to " the land of lands," whose spirit is perpetuated in its
flowing lines.
Dorchester House, of which Augustus Hare very properly says that
it is " an imitation, not (like most English buildings) a caricature of
the best Italian models," was built for Mr. R. S. Holford, after the designs
of Vulliamy, during the years 1851-53, and was erected on the site of
an older house, bearing the same name, which had belonged to the Earls
DORCHESTER HOUSE 251
of Dorchester.^ The history of the old mansion during the Dorchester
regime is wrapt in obscurity ; but later it was occupied by the notorious
third Marquis of Hertford, who married Maria Fagniani, the adopted
daughter of George Selwyn, and who died here in 1842, some years after
which event Air. Holford purchased the property, pulled down the old
mansion, and built the present stately pleasure house on its site.
The massive building forms a parallelogram, being over 100 feet in
width by 135 feet in depth, and indicates, in its effective facade facing
the Park, the elaborate carvings in the cornice, and the large amount
of detail discernible in its exterior, the care and judgment bestowed
upon it by the architect, as well as the lavish expenditure of Mr. Holford.
In an article in The Builder, devoted to the consideration of Dorchester
House occurs the following passage, which, as giving some interesting
technical details of the fabric, I here quote : " This mansion is a very good
specimen of masonry, and is built for long endurance. The external walls
are 3 feet 10 inches thick, with a cavity of about 5 inches, and the pro-
portion of stone is great, and the bonders numerous ; the stones are all
dowelled together with slate dowells ; and throughout, the greatest care
appears to have been taken by the architect to ensure more than usually
sound construction. If the New Zealander, who is to gaze on the deserted
site of fallen London in some distant time to come, sees nothing else stand-
ing in this neighbourhood, he will certainly find the weather-tinted walls
of Dorchester House erect and faithful, and will, perhaps, strive to discover
the meaning on the shield beneath the balconies, ' R.S.H.,' that he may
communicate his speculations to some Tasmanian Society of Antiquaries."
In front of Dorchester House is a triangular fore-court, enclosed by
a massive stone wall which surrounds the house, and has a lodge at the
entrance where Deanery Street runs into Park Lane.
It is obvious that a house whose solidity of construction and external
details have been so carefully thought out, should show in its interior a
commensurate completeness as well as a wealth of homogeneous details.
When Dr. Waagen visited this country and inspected its great galleries
of art, Mr. Holford was erecting this palace, largely for the reception of
the magnificent collection of pictures which he had then already brought
together, and which was at that time temporarily lodged in Sir Thomas
Lawrence's old residence in Russell Square, where the great art critic saw
it ; now, however, these gems of art repose on the walls that were
' Joseph Darner, bom 1718, created Earl of Dorchester 1792, married Lady Caroline
Sackville, daughter of first Duke of Dorset, and was succeeded in 179S, by his son George
Darner, Earl of Dorchester, born 1746, died iSocS. Dorchester House in Lord Milton's (after-
wards Earl of Dorchester) time, owing to its exclusiveness, was called "Milton's Paradise
Lost."
252 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
built largely for their reception, and the glowing tints of Titian and the
flowing draperies of Veronese take on an added beauty from the fact
that their surroundings are so strictly in keeping with them, that they
might still be hanging in one of those Venetian palaces from whence
they came.
But numerous as are the pictures in Dorchester House, the immense
size of the various state rooms and their number, have the happy
effect of enabling each picture to hang at a reasonable distance from its
neighbour, and thus is avoided that overcrowding which so greatly
detracts from the pleasure of inspecting such works of art in many great
houses whose picture-galleries are filled to overflowing.
The great staircase at Dorchester House, over which the late George
Richmond was so enthusiastic, is indeed a thing to wonder at, there being
nothing comparable to it in London, with the exception, perhaps, of that in
Stafford House ; it occupies the centre of the house, and is lighted from
above, and from the gallery round it open that remarkable range of apart-
ments— the Saloon, the Green Drawing Room, the Red Drawing Room,
and the State Drawing Room — in which the ceilings and other decorations
are from the hands of Italian artists, and the beautiful chimney-pieces are
by Alfred Stevens, and probably represent the finest work that great
artist ever achieved. In these rooms hang some of the notable pictures
of the great masters, Titian and Tintoretto, Velasquez and Vandyck and
Murillo, Rembrandt and Claude and Cuyp and Ruysdael.
In the Saloon, which it will be convenient to examine first, hangs
over the fireplace, and let into the magnificently carved marble over-
mantel, Vandyck's portrait of the Marchesa Balbi, one of the painter's
greatest achievements, and owing much of that glorious golden tone
which suffuses it, to his study of the Venetian masters during his
sojourn at Genoa. Only less luminous are Dosso Dossi's full-length of
Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, and the Philip IV. by Velasquez, a later portrait
of that monarch than the fine one we shall presently come to in the Red
Drawing Room. In the Saloon also hang a pair of portraits by Angelo
Allori, commonly called Bronzino, representing Cosmo I., Duke of Tuscany,
and his wife Eleanor, daughter of Don Pedro of Toledo, which, it is pro-
bable, the painter never surpassed ; while the great Titian is responsible
for the head of, it is supposed, one of the Dukes of Milan of the Sforza
family, as well as for the portrait of a Venetian lady. By Domenichino,
there is a St. Lawrence in this room, and a portrait of Murillo by himself,
and Rembrandt gives us a head of a man, that of a well-known merchant
of Amsterdam, Marten Looten, dated 1623, which came from Cardinal
Fesch's collection, and which Waagen praises highly for its " natural
DORCHESTER HOUSE 253
colouring and delicacy of feeling " ; and close by is Annibale Caracci's
" Susanna and the Elders," which can hardly be said to show up well beside
the masterpieces here ; while two beautiful landscapes must not escape
our attention ; one by Caspar Poussin, by whom there are at least
three others in the collection, and the other by Richard Wilson, the
first of the great English landscape painters, whose hard classicism could
not detract from his natural genius.
The pictures, of which there are over twenty, in the Green Drawing
Room are no less notable, and exhibit, if possible, a still greater catholi-
city of taste than those in the Saloon. Here is an " Adoration " by
Gaudenzio Ferrari, commonly called Gaudenzio Milanese, who is said
by some to have been the pupil of Perugino, and by others of Luini,
but of whose work, the best that exists is by common consent traced to
the study of the paintings of Leonardo. Of this altar-piece, Waagen
points out " the well-balanced composition, the noble feeling in the
heads, the tender and clear tone of the flesh, and the equally sustained
and careful treatment." The " Virgin and Child," said to be by Andrea
del Sarto, which hangs close by, is, according to the same authority, more
probably a copy by Jacopo da Empoli ; in any case we know that the
latter carefully studied the productions of the greater man, and was so
excellent a copyist that even the best judges have been deceived by
his work.
There also hang in this room, a " Holy Family " by Bonifazio, an
interesting work, although one must, of course, go to the churches and
palaces of Venice to see the master's finest achievements ; and a beautiful
" Virgin and Child " by Perugino, that delightful painter whose greatest
glory, however, will ever be that he had Raphael for his pupil. Here is
also a " Magdalen " by Guercino, and another by Domenichino ; while a
beautiful little " Virgin and Child " by Luini, and a " Holy Family " by
Sassoferrato are also worth most careful attention.
Portraits by Paul Veronese, Tintoretto, and Palma Vecchio represent
the Venetian school, and a head by Luini curiously reminds one, in
many of its characteristics, of the work of the great Leonardo who is
supposed to have been the painter's master. Besides these there are
examples of the work of Lorenzo Lotto,^ the pupil of Giovanni Bellini ;
Schiavone, whose beauty of colouring was due to his careful study of the
work of Titian ; Mabuse, whom our Henry VH. patronised ; and to leap
over some intervening centuries, there also hangs here the picture, by Sir
Joshua, of Lady Townshend, one of the three beautiful daughters of Sir
' The portrait of a lady with a little dog was formerly attributed to this painter, but has
since been supposed to be the work of Pietro Luzzo, called Morto da Feltro.
2 54 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
William Montgomery, who was married to the first Marquis Townshend
in 1776; and with these there is a portrait of an old lady by Greuze, but
very unlike in style his characteristic productions.
Teniers's well-known " Bonnet blanc," representing a group of rustics
playing cards, which gains its title from a white cap hanging on the chair
occupied by the principal figure, is also here, as is a " Village Fair " by
Wouvermanns ; a poetical though rather dark landscape by Caspar
Poussin ; a Crucifixion by Cuido ; and a landscape by Salvator Rosa ;
there is also an interesting study of the " Raising of the Cross " by
Rubens, a sketch for the Triptych in Antwerp Cathedral, of which there is
a somewhat similar drawing in the Louvre ; but the gem of the room
is the glorious Cuyp, a " View of Dort," which is flooded with that
glorious golden light which characterises the magnificent " Landing of
Prince Maurice at Dordrecht," in Lord EUesmere's collection. The
Dorchester House example of this great master is a long picture, and is
said to have once been divided down the centre ; if this was so, it is lucky
that the two portions have been so carefully joined that the vandalism
is not apparent. Well may Waagen say of this superb picture, that in
it Cuyp " outdoes himself in the delicate harmony of gradations and
the enchanting transparency of tones with which he expresses the sunny
stillness of the scene " !
In the Red Drawing Room there is a similar profusion of fine
pictures, but here the works are nearly wholly confined to the Dutch
and Flemish schools, although there is " A Man holding a Skull " by
Murillo, and two Velasquezs ; one, a portrait of Philip the Fourth,
and the other a magnificent full-length of the Due d'Olivares. The
elaboration of contour, which is so distinctive a note in this fine picture,
has been observed by Sir Walter Armstrong. The great statesman is
here represented, dressed in black, against a dark background, and holding
in his right hand the wand of office as Master of the Horse ; the
picture was painted between 1615 and 1623, and the head greatly
resembles that executed by Rubens, probably in 1628, which was
formerly at Hamilton Palace. The Philip IV., although apparently an
earlier work of the painter, and showing, therefore, somewhat obviously
certain conventions of style which characterised Velasquez's more immature
conceptions, is an elaborate piece of work, and shows us the King as a
young man, holding a baton in his right hand, and dressed ready to take
the field.
But perhaps the most remarkable canvas in the room is Vandyck's
famous full-length of Scaliger, one of the Spanish Ambassadors at the
Congress of Westphalia, in which all the painter's transcendent merits
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DORCHESTER HOUSE 255
as a portrait-painter are brought into full play, and his great qualities
of tone and perfect draughtsmanship, are exhibited in a remarkable
manner. When I speak of this as being perhaps the most noticeable
picture in this apartment I do not overlook the fact that Rembrandt
is here represented by a fine full face of Titus van Ryn, painted, according
to M. Michel, about 1660, which has some affinity to the earlier repre-
sentation of Titus (1655) formerly in the Kahn collection.
Besides these great works are a number of extraordinarily line examples
of the Dutch school, by such men as Ostade, and Karl du Jardin ; Van
der Velde, and Wouvermanns ; Teniers, Backhuysen, and Both. Ruysdael
is represented by a landscape known as the " Coup de Soleil," which was
exhibited at Manchester in 1857, and in the "Old Masters" thirty-
seven years later ; Paul Potters' so-called " Rabbit Warren," signed,
and dated 1647, also hangs here, as does the superb "Water Mill" by
Hobbema, executed in 1663, which was once in Hamilton Palace, and
for which Mr. Holford paid the high price of over _^4000. Close by, in
somewhat curious juxtaposition, hangs one of Pater's insoucia?it canvases.
Naturally the pictures which I have noted do not exhaust the remark-
able collection at Dorchester House ; to do that would require something
approaching the minute investigation which such men as Waagen and
Smith have paid to the artistic treasures heaped up in the great houses
of this country ; but I hope I have succeeded in giving some idea of the
beauty as well as the catholicity of the Holford collection ; to do more
would be to go beyond the scope of this book. Nor is it possible for me to
do more than mention the other artistic treasures enshrined in Dorchester
House, such as the marble busts, one of Henry IV. of France, in black
marble, being particularly noticeable ; the magnificently carved ebony
cabinet of Italian work which stands in the Corridor, or the Luca della
Robbia plaques that hang under the loggia of the Entrance Hall ; but,
above all, the well-nigh priceless collection of books, in which the produc-
tions of the presses of Caxton, Wynken de Worde, and Pynsen, are only
equalled by the extraordinary number and value of the block-books and
illuminated missals. One of the chief of the great purchases made by
Mr. Holford was the splendid library collected by Lord Vernon, the great
Dante scholar and enthusiast ; and among the treasures at Dorchester
House will be found practically every work of importance printed in Italy
before 1500, including those books illustrated both on copper and on wood,
such as, among the former, the Monte Sante di Dio of 1472, and among
the latter the famous Naples ^sop and the Trilocolo of Boccaccio of a
few years earlier.
A feature of the wondrous assemblage is the number of works printed
256 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
on vellum, notably a copy of the Hypnerotomachia, of which there is also
a large paper copy of exceeding rarity. Here, too, is a Terence printed
in 1496, and a Horace dated two years later, and printed at Strasburg
by Johann Reinhard ; Jenson's large Vulgate printed on vellum at
Venice, in 1479, and the French translation of the Golden Legend, also
on vellum, published by Verard, in 1488, as well as the English version,
printed in 1527. There is, also, a splendid series of classical works in
all languages, and famous editions of well-known books ; from folios of
elephantine size, containing the works of Piranesi and David Roberts ;
to the dear " dumpy twelves " of the once so popular Elzevir Press,
including that rarest of its productions, the famous Pastissier Franfats,
of which the scarcity is not surprising, when we know that it was the
" Mrs. Beeton " of the period, and was constantly referred to by
seventeenth-century cooks, and was much more frequently to be found
in the kitchen than in the library. Here m.ay also be seen such gems
as the first editions of the Pilgrim's Progress and the Coinplete Angler,
inter alia, while there are two priceless volumes of Americana, one,
a fat little volume of those scarce tracts for which battle is done at
Sotheby's and Puttick's on the rare occasions when any of them come into
the market ; and the other the original large paper copy of John Smith's
History of Virginia, presented by the author to the Cordwainers' Company
which sent him out there, and containing a remarkable and, of course,
unique letter of dedication to that body.
The MSS. date from the ninth to the sixteenth century, and are
another proof, if one were wanted, of their collector's admirable dis-
crimination and catholicity of taste ; among them I may mention the
Livre d'Heures of Anne of Bretagne, and the Venetian MS. dated about
15 10, and signed by one Benedetto Bordone ; as well as the wonderful
ninth-century Gospels, written in gold ; and a thousand other rarities
over which the spirits of Heber and Beckford must surely hover, if the
ghosts of those mighty bibliophiles ever revisit the glimpses of the moon.^
All these works are gorgeously clothed by the great binders of the last
three centuries, who have set on them the seal of their artistic feeling and
consummate skill, and many of the volumes have had a provenance from the
shelves of some famous bibliophile whose most loving care for them could
hardly have desired a more splendid resting-place than the library of
Dorchester House, where they are locked away in splendid security, and,
unfortunately, for a time at least, seem destined to fulfil but a part of
their destiny — that of being merely decorative objects.
' This year (1908) the Burlington Fine Arts Club is holding an exhibition of some of the
MSS. from Dorchester House.
the one
Mr.
258 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
From what I have said about this great house it will be seen that
there is a homogeneity about its internal as well as external decoration
which justified me, I think, in calling it an Italian palace dropped on
to an alien soil ; its contents are also in keeping, except that the purist
might object to the presence of works by the Dutch masters in close
proximity to those by great Italian painters ; but this is almost inevitable
where catholicity of taste is combined with artistic appreciation ; and
when one remembers the noble Rembrandts, the sylvan beauty of the
Hobbema, the light that never was on land or sea, with which Cuyp has,
as it were, flooded his " View of Dort," even the most critical will be ready
to forgive an anachronism for the sake of the beauties that cause it.
When we have seen the Dorchester House collection we have gazed
on some of the finest Rembrandts and Vandycks in existence ; and we
have passed through a collection of Dutch pictures which is extraordi-
narily complete, the only masters of importance absent from it being
Terburg and Metsu, Jan Steen, and the rare Vermeer of Delft. Besides
those artists to whose work I have previously referred, there are
examples of Gonzales Coques, Paul Potter, Van der Neer, in this case a
skating scene, and not one of those moonlight effects for which he was
famous, Mieris, Rubens, and De Vos, to mention but these.
But what will chiefly strike the visitor to Dorchester House, is un-
doubtedly the exquisite taste and wide range of artistic sympathy which was
so characteristic of the late Mr. Holford. Nothing, provided it was first-
rate, was rejected by him, unless the exigencies of the house prevented
his hanging a picture in such a position as, in his mature opinion, it should
be hung ; but given such unfavourable conditions, he has been known
to refuse such masterpieces as Bellini's " Doge Lonedano," and the great
Francian " Entombment " Altar-piece with the Pieta lunette, which now
hangs in the National Gallery. With this purity of taste and exquisite
sensitiveness to artistic propriety went hand in hand that remarkable
catholicity of which the collection at Dorchester House is but one
example ; to gauge this trait thoroughly one would also have to study
the splendid gallery at Westonbirt, in Gloucestershire, a number of the
pictures from which magnificent place were recently exhibited in the
" Old Masters " at BurHngton House.
Nothing, perhaps, shows more clearly and forcibly than the Holford
collection how masterpieces, of whatever school and period, hang together
with an extraordinary fitness ; the collocation of such works of art in the
Tribune at Florence or the Salon carre in the Louvre shows this, while
the collections at Dorchester House and Westonbirt further prove it.
In Dorchester House every picture seems to occupy its appointed
DORCHESTER HOUSE 259
place ; there is here no crowding, no confusion. Many galleries contain
one masterpiece for half-a-dozen indifferent works ; but here, as, too, in
Grosvenor House, there is a rightness about every work hanging on the
walls, which points to a trained mind in its acquisition and an aptitude
for selection which creates taste out of enthusiasm. Nor does this excellent
characteristic show itself only in the pictorial treasures housed here ; the
decorations of every room, every piece of furniture or objet d'art which
is contained in the mansion is eloquent of this perfect discrimination ;
while the magnificent collection of prints and etchings, now dispersed,
and the wonderful library of printed books and illuminated missals, help
to further prove it beyond all question.
CHAPTER XII
GROSVENOR HOUSE
THE more or less uniform regularity of Upper Grosvenor Street
is broken towards its upper end by a magnificent open stone
screen of Roman Doric design, which, with its two carriage
entrances, extends no less than no feet. The pediments of
this screen bear the Grosvenor arms, and above the entrances for pedes-
trians are sculptured the four Seasons, although the sceptical might
well question whether any residence in London enjoys more than two,
or at the most three, of these divisions of the year. Between the
columns appear massive candelabra, which, like the gates, are of elaborate
metal work, sculptured in foliage and fruit and flower work, intertwined
with figures and armorial designs. This really beautiful piece of work
was designed by T. Cundy in 1842, and forms the entrance to the Duke
of Westminster's town residence, which is known to all Londoners as
Grosvenor House, and as one of those great mansions which it is the
pleasure and privilege of their noble owners to throw open to the public
when any scheme of charity or artistic endeavour is toward.
The mansion itself faces south, and is curiously early Victorian in
design, having some resemblance, although on a far larger scale, to
Kingston House, Knightsbridge, where the semicircular projecting
verandah seems to challenge more modern methods, and to assert some
claims for an architectural style which has long been supposed to have
" seen its best day," as the saying is. In curious contrast with this main
building is the great Picture Gallery, which projects from the west side
of the house, and extends almost to the frontage of the property on
Park Lane. This Ball Room or Picture Gallery, for it is used as both,
was also the work of Cundy, and was erected at the same time as the great
entrance in Upper Grosvenor Street. It consists of a Corinthian colon-
nade, with six statues at intervals between the columns, and an attic ;
and is based on the design of Trajan's Forum at Rome ; on the acroteria,
to use an architectural term, which means, for the uninitiated, the
pedestals for statues or similar decorations at the apex, or lower corners.
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GROSVENOR HOUSE 261
of a pediment, a balustrade runs along, and vases break the regularity of
this ; while between the columns sculptured festoons of flowers and
fruit help to further relieve the design, and to give it an effect of richness
As in the case of several other great London mansions, the earlier
history of Grosvenor House is wrapt in some obscurity. It would appear
to have been originally built for William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, a
younger brother of George HI., and to have been first known, in con-
sequence, as Gloucester House. The Duke was born in 1743, and died
in 1805, having married secretly, in 1766, Maria Walpole, Dowager
Countess of Waldegrave. This marriage was made known in 1772, on
the passing of the Royal Marriage Act, and in consequence of the King's
anger the Duke and Duchess lived abroad for a number of years, certainly
as late as 1787, in which year a letter to Mrs. Fitzherbert from the Duke
is extant, dated from Florence. It is therefore probable that Gloucester
House was built at some period subsequent to this date, when the Duke
and Duchess had returned, and were living in London.^ On the death
of the Duke in 1805, the property was taken over by the second Earl
of Grosvenor, who had succeeded to the title three years earlier.
For a London dwelling the grounds attached to Grosvenor House
are of very considerable size, and extend from Upper Grosvenor Street
to Mount Street, occupying the large space between Park Street and
Park Lane. That they should cover this large area is appropriate, for
in this fashionable quarter of the town the Grosvenor family have long
possessed immense property, as the result of the marriage of Sir Thomas
Grosvenor, the third baronet, with Mary, daughter and heiress of
Alexander Davies, of Ebury, in Middlesex. It was their son. Sir Richard,
the fourth baronet, that " mighty builder " who, about fifty years later,
developed this valuable estate to such advantage, and who, among other
work, laid out Grosvenor Square. His nephew, Richard Grosvenor, son
of Sir Robert Grosvenor, who was born on June 18, 1731, and succeeded
as seventh baronet in 1755, was created, six years later, Baron Grosvenor
of Eaton, and was further raised in dignity, in 1784, with the titles of
Viscount Belgrave and Earl Grosvenor. His son, Robert, succeeded to
the titles in 1802, and in 1831 was created Marquis of Westminster,
having married, in 1794, Lady Eleanor Egerton, only daughter and
heiress of Thomas, first Earl of Wilton. Although this marriage helped
to further aggrandise the family in wealth and influence, which, so far
at least as the latter was concerned, was further enhanced by the marriages
of the second and third Marquises, to daughters of the first and second
' The Duke was living in a small house known as the Pavilions, in Hampton Court Park
in 1795, t>"t of course this is quite consonant with his then having also a London residence.
262 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Dukes of Sutherland respectively, the chief source of the enormous
wealth of the late and present Dukes of Westminster (for the third
Marquis, grandfather of the present holder of the title, was created a
Duke in 1874) was laid by the purchase by the first Lord Grosvenor,
in 1 761, of that large tract of what was then merely marshy ground,
but which is now covered with houses and streets known collectively
as Belgravia ; in early days, and indeed up to 1826, it was termed the
Five Fields, where it is a question whether ague and rheumatism were
less to be feared than the foot-pads that then haunted this insanitary
spot. The enterprise and what may, I think, be termed the genius, of
Cubitt, converted this morass (for it was little better), by a system of
scientific drainage, into a healthy neighbourhood, and the splendid houses
and squares with which he developed it have made it not only habitable
but one of the most fashionable localities in London.
This long parenthesis has taken us a considerable way from Grosvenor
House, in which, if we return to it, we shall find a collection of magnificent
pictures, and works of art, second to hardly any in the metropolis.
The founder of this superb assemblage was that Richard, first Earl
Grosvenor, whom I have mentioned above, as succeeding to the family
baronetcy in 1755. No sooner had he done so than he began to emulate
the then relatively few, other than royal, picture collectors, buying largely,
and as is frequently the case with those indulging in a new hobby, often
not very judiciously.^ As, however, he did not confine his purchases to
any particular school, he managed to add to his gallery some excellent
works, especially as price was not a matter of moment to him. Thus at
the dispersal of Sir Luke Schaub's collection, in 1758, he purchased
Guido's " Infant Christ," ' and Charles Lebrun's " Alexander in the Tent
of Darius " ; giving 300 guineas for the former, and {^■'2.'] for the
latter ; prices which were, at that time, considered excessive. Five
years later he commissioned Mr. Dalton, then about to set out for
Italy to make purchases for George III., whose librarian he was, to
buy pictures for him ; the result being two works by Ludovico Caracci
and Baroccio, among others. The former represents " The Vision of
St. Francis," and is an altogether beautiful work ; while the latter, called
" La Vierge a I'Ecuelle," is obviously inspired by Correggio's " Madonna
della Scodella."
Among the other works brought together by the first Earl Grosvenor,
among many of but second-rate importance, were " The Bear Hunt "
1 The collection was then located in Millbank House, Westminster, which had been
built, about 1720, for Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, but is now no more.
- Now hanging in the Saloon ; Lebrun's work is not now at Grosvenor House.
GROSVENOR HOUSE 263
by Snyders, and the " Fortuna " by Guido,' a replica of the picture
in the Vatican.
Thus was a nucleus formed of a gallery of old masters,^ but Sir
Richard Grosvenor's best investments were, undoubtedly, the works of
contemporary painters, which he purchased indirectly, or for which he
gave commissions directly to the artists, as will be recognised when we
remember that these included works by Reynolds and Gainsborough,
Northcote, Stubbs, and Wilson. By far the most important additions to
the collection were, however, made by the second Earl Grosvenor, who
in the year in which he moved to Grosvenor House, purchased en bloc the
splendid collection formed by Mr. Agar-Ellis. As we shall see when
examining the pictures in the various rooms at Grosvenor House, those
that had this provenance are among some of the finest in the collection ;
a collection which is probably freer from indifferent work than any
other in London, with the possible exception of that at Dorchester House ;
and of the hundred and thirty odd pictures included in the private
catalogue there is hardly a single picture that might not be considered a
valuable addition to any collection, and nearly every one would be a gem
in an assemblage less richly endowed with carefully selected masterpieces.
In some respects the two principal works by Reynolds and Gains-
borough which hang in Grosvenor House are among the best known
pictures in the world ; one is " Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse," the
other " The Blue Boy," both of which now hang in the Drawing Room.
The former great work was painted in 1784, and although the main idea of
the pose is said to have been suggested by the " Isaiah " of Michael Angclo,
yet Mrs. Siddons once informed Mr. Phillips " that it was the production
of pure accident." " Sir Joshua," we are told, " had begun the head and
figure in a different view ; but while he was occupied in the preparation
of some colour, she changed her position to look at a picture hanging
on the wall of the room. When he again looked at her, and saw the
action she had assumed, he requested her not to move ; and thus arose
the beautiful and expressive figure we now see in the picture."
Although Hazlitt once said of this great work : " It is neither the
tragic muse nor Mrs. Siddons," Sir Joshua thought as highly of it as
other great critics have done, and evidence of this is shown by the fact
that he signed his name on the border of the drapery,' telling Mrs. Siddons
' No. 58 and 63 in Young's Catalogue of the Grosvenor Pictures. The latter alone is now
at Grosvenor House.
^ For a complete list of the pictures as they were at that time, see Young's Catuloi^ue of
the Pictures at Grosvenor J/oiise, published in IVlay 1820. This work was dedicated to Earl
Grosvenor, and was prepared under his auspices ; it contains etchings of 143 pictures.
' He did the same in the case of the "Lady Cockburn," now in the National Gallery.
But signing his pictures was a very rare habit with him.
264 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
that he " could not lose the honour this opportunity afforded him of
going down to posterity on the hem of her garment." It is said
that on one occasion when looking at the picture at Grosvenor House,
Mrs. Siddons remarked that Sir Joshua wanted to work more on the face,
but that she told him that if he did so, he would spoil it, whereupon
he took her advice and left it untouched. The work was bought by
M. de Calonne for 800 guineas, on the dispersal of whose collection, in
1795, it was purchased by W. Smith, Esq., M.P., for Norwich, for ^^700.
He subsequently sold it to Mr. Watson Taylor, for ^^900 ; and when
the Watson Taylor pictures were dispersed, in 1822, it came into the
possession of Lord Grosvenor, at the price of £1^60} There are at least
three replicas of this great work ; the best known, though anything but
the best, is in the Dulwich Gallery, which, according to Northcote, was
not painted by Sir Joshua at all, but by one of his pupils named Score.
" The Blue Boy," painted in 1779,^ is an almost equally famous work.
It represents Master Jonathan Buttall, son of Mr. Buttall of Greek Street,
Soho, standing at full-length, in a blue satin dress of the Stuart period ;
and was the outcome of a dispute between Gainsborough and other
painters, particularly Sir Joshua, who laid down the axiom^ that a pre-
ponderance of blue in a picture was to be deprecated as spoiling a good
colour scheme. One can hardly imagine a more effective rejoinder, a
more telling disproof of the accuracy of this assertion, than this super-
latively fine production. The canvas originally belonged to Mr. Buttall,
and later to his son (the subject of the picture), on whose death ir was
purchased by a Mr. Nesbit, from whom it is said to have passed to
George, Prince of Wales ; later it became the property of Hoppner, who,
however, eventually sold it to Earl Grosvenor.
I may mention here that there are at Grosvenor House two of Gains-
borough's most successful landscapes ; one, " The Cottage Door," the
other, " A Coast Scene." They both hang in the Ante-Drawing Room ;
the former was purchased by the first Marquis of Westminster, at the
sale of Lord de Tabley's pictures in 1828 ; and the other was painted
specially for the first Earl Grosvenor. They are among the best of
Gainsborough's work in landscape, which is, perhaps, tantamount to
saying that they are among the finest landscapes in the world.
In Grosvenor House there are six stately rooms in each of which hang
a number of splendid works of art, and all of which are decorated with
lavishness combined with excellent taste. Every picture is separately
lighted by electric light hidden behind a reflector ; so that even the
^ According to Mrs. Jameson ; Mr. Redford, however, puts it at ^1837.
" No. 16 in Young's Catalogue.
GROSVENOR HOUSE 265
merits of those which have necessarily to be hung in a less effective
position than others, can be minutely judged.
In the Dining Room there hang as many as thirty-one canvases, no
less than seven of which are by Claude. Two of these works are stated
by Waagen to be among the largest the artist ever painted ; they are
known respectively as " The Worship of the Golden Calf," and " The
Sermon on the Mount," and if not to be classed with the master's greatest
achievements, they still combine many of his remarkable qualities. Both
came from the Agar-Ellis collection ; the former being painted, on the
authority of the Liber Veritatis, for Signor Carlo Cadillo, in 1655,
although Young, in his Catalogue of the Grosvenor Gallery, asserts that it was
executed for Sir Peter Lely,^ and it is so stated in the private catalogue
where it is also affirmed that Sir Peter had stipulated that no figures
should appear, as he intended to introduce these himself, but that Claude
sent him the canvas full of figures and told him he could keep it or not
as he liked. Of the second picture, Mrs. Jameson states that an old lady
was so filled with admiration for it that she offered Mr. Agar-Ellis a
handsome annuity, merely to be allowed the loan of the canvas during her
life, an anecdote one can well believe as one gazes at this consummate work.
Another pair of " Claudes " are known as " Morning," and " Evening,"
and are of superlative merit and beauty. Painted in 165 1 (at least the
latter bears this date), Mrs. Jameson supposes them to be identical with
the two works which were in the Blondel de Gaguy collection, and which
were sold, in 1776, for 24,000 francs. That their value increased by
leaps and bounds is evidenced by the fact that, on the death of Mr. Agar-
Ellis in whose collection they were, a foreign collector is said to have
offered no less than ;^8ooo for them, but Lord Grosvenor had, luckily,
already forestalled this tempting bid.
Two other landscapes by the same master are known as " The Rise,
and the Decline of the Roman Empire," as they represent in the middle
distance Rome in its glory, and in its ruin.^
By Rembrandt, there are no less than five superb portraits in the
Dining Room. Of these, the presentments of Nicholas Berghem, the
painter, and of his wife, are perhaps the most interesting. Both are
signed and dated 1647, and that of the artist was executed when he was
about twenty-seven. There is also a superb little portrait of Rembrandt
himself, representing him at about the age of twenty, habited as a soldier,
which is supposed to be the most youthful of the many pictures the
' Mrs. Jameson doubts this, on the ground that there was no such work in the catalogue of
Lely's pictures, and also from absence of any other proof.
- The latter is now removed to another room as we shall see.
266 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
painter produced of himself. It was formerly in the collection of Calonne.
Another portrait hy the same master is that of a man with a hawk,
dated 1643, and together with one of a lady with a fan, has evoked the
wonder and admiration of critics, as it cannot fail to do that of even the
ordinary untrained intelligence. These two works were, in 1809, in the
collection of M. Grand-Pre, and were then valued at 40,000 francs ;
what their present value is, Christie's alone only knows. They were
brought to this country by M. de la Hannte, from whom Earl Grosvenor
purchased them, in 1820. In this room also hangs a very important
example of a painter whom it is less the fashion to admire nowadays than
it was formerly — Murillo ; this particular work is known as " Laban seek-
ing his Household Gods in Jacob's Tent " ; and as was not unusual with
the earlier painters, the subject is treated as a scene of contemporary life.
A frofos of this work, it is interesting to know that Murillo originally
projected a series of subjects from the life of David, and desired Ignatio
Iriarte of Seville to execute the backgrounds ; he wished Iriarte to
first paint the landscapes, to which he was to add the figures ; but
Iriarte wanted the process reversed ; so, in order to get out of the impasse,
Murillo did the whole himself, taking the subject of Laban instead of that
originally intended. The work was successively in the Santiago, and
Coesveldt collections, from the latter of which it passed into that of the
Marquess of Villamanrique. One authority, however, states that it was
sold by the Marquis of Santiago to Mr. Wallis, and passed from him,
through Mr. Buchanan, to Lord Grosvenor ; while there is also a tradi-
tion that when the French entered Madrid, in 1808, it was selected, with
other works of art, by General Sebastiani, as part of the booty exacted.
Next to this fine work is a " Holy Family " by Ludovico Caracci,
painted with a depth of tone and richness of colouring which is very
unusual with this painter. This work, together with " A Young Faun in
a Landscape," by Salvator Rosa, which the first Marquis of Westminster
purchased, exhausts the pictures other than those by Dutch and Flemish
masters in this room. In addition to the Rembrandts, David Teniers
is represented by two characteristic works ; one, " A Family saying
Grace " ; the other, " Boers Drinking " ; and there is a Van Huysum
almost, if not quite, equal to the superb example of this painter in the
National Gallery. This particular masterpiece was once in the Braam-
kemp and Geldermeester Galleries, from the latter of which it was pur-
chased by Sir Francis Baring, about 1800. It was from the Baring
collection that it was bought by George IV. ; the King, however, sub-
sequently sold it to Mr. Watson Taylor, at the sale of whose gallery, in
1822, it was purchased by Lord Grosvenor. By Rubens is a small land-
GROSVENOR HOUSE 267
scape most minutely finished, which, according to Young, was painted
before the artist went to Italy, and when he must have been about
eighteen or twenty. Waagen very properly calls this beautiful little
production " a real gem." It was one of the pictures originally collected
by Lord Grosvenor, before he purchased the Agar-Ellis gallery, as was
the Cuyp, representing a group of sheep in a pen, which hangs near it.
Among the other works here, special attention is demanded by
Wouvermanns's " Horse Fair," a most exquisite and spirited work, which
is signed but not dated, and which was one of the Agar-Ellis pictures ;
the same epithets may well be applied to the " Farm House with Cattle
and Figures," by Adrian Van der Velde, dated 1658, the year in which
the painter, who was then but nineteen, painted the similar picture which
is now in the Peel collection. The work at Grosvenor House was origin-
ally in the galleries of M. Lorimer, the Due de Choiseul, and the Prince
de Conti, and was later among the Agar-EUis pictures, which is a pedigree
of which any work of art might be proud.
I have mentioned one Cuyp, which I confess does not move me to
enthusiasm — it is so hard and dry ; but another, a landscape with figures
and sheep, is of very different quality, being warm and deep in tone,
and in every way worthy of its painter's great reputation. There is here,
too, a " View of Nimwegen," by Van Goyen, of characteristically thin
impasto, signed and dated 1645 ; and a sketch by Rubens for his large
picture of the " Conversion of St. Paul ; " as well as a remarkably
fine and very large landscape by Nicholas Berghem, dated 1656, once
in the Agar-Ellis collection.
The Saloon, in which hang some of the most important of the many
precious works in Grosvenor House, communicates with the Dining Room,
and as that apartment does, looks out upon the ample gardens. The
ceiling of this fine room is decorated in the Italian style, in neutral tints,
and is so carefully subdued as not to clash with the pictures that hang
on the walls ; which flafonds over-loaded with bright decorative work are
frequently apt to do. There is in this room a very beautiful mantel-
piece of Carrara marble, with plaques of red marble introduced, and
about the room are some magnificent examples of French furniture of
the Louis Quatorze period, in the shape of cabinets, loaded with rare
and costly porcelain. But I am chiefly concerned with the pictures, of
which there are no less than thirty-eight by masters of the Italian, French,
Spanish, Dutch, and Flemish schools ; and although this collocation of
the poetic spiritualities of the Italians with the more material expositions
of the Dutch and Flemish masters is perhaps to be regretted, at the same
268 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
time it is a significant fact that when a work, of whatever school it be,
is a masterpiece, these seemingly opposite characteristics assimilate in a
remarkable manner.
Of the Italians, Guilio Romano ; Andrea del Sarto, " the faultless
painter " ; Benvenuto Tisio, commonly called Garofalo ; Tiarini ;
Albano ; Paul Veronese ; MazzuoH, called Parmigiano ; Biscaino, and
Zampieri, better known as Domenichino, are among those here repre-
sented ; and if there be some doubt about the authenticity of Tisio's
work, there should be none about that by Guilio Romano of " St. Luke
painting the Virgin," which was purchased in Italy for the first Earl
Grosvenor, by Mr. Dalton, in 1763, for Waagen expressly states his belief
as to its genuineness, after having examined a number of other undoubted
works by this painter ; but for long it was attributed to one of Raphael's
pupils, and Mrs. Jameson, quoting Passavant as additional authority,
also attributes this genesis to the panel.
There is, too, in this room, another picture by Guilio Romano, of
" St. John the Baptist seated in the Wilderness," which was formerly in
the Agar-Ellis collection, and is a copy of Raphael's well-known work in
the Tribune at Florence. Andrea del Sarto is represented by three works ;
one, curiously modern in treatment, is a portrait of the Contessina Mattel,
with a white ruff round her neck and a veil on her head ; it was this
portrait that Mrs. Jameson had in mind when she wrote : " We read a whole
life in her settled, thoughtful brow, in her deep melancholy eye, and in
the compressed resigned expression of the mouth." Another Del Sarto is a
head of the infant St. John, on panel, which was one of Lord Grosvenor's
original collection, and is not unlike the celebrated " Laughing Boy " by Da
Vinci, once one of the gems of Fonthill ; the third picture by the master
forming a companion to this work, is a head of the Infant Saviour, and
was probably bought together with the St. John.
Benvenuto Tisio is represented by a Riposo,^ although this work was
at one time attributed to Raphael. There seems to be always a certain
amount of doubt as to the productions of this painter, whose pictures
are rarely found outside Italy ; but there should not be, because he gained
his nickname of Garofolo from his custom of painting a gilly-flower in
the corner of his pictures, which should be a certain kind of hall-mark,
except, of course, in the case of obvious copies of his work.
By Tiarini, a comparatively little known artist, although Ludovico
Caracci said of his picture of " St. Domenico raising a Dead Person to Life,"
that it was superior to most productions of the age, is a small delicately
' The frame of this picture is beautifully carved, and is said to be the work of the monks
to whom it originally belonged. Note in the Private Catalogue,
GROSVENOR HOUSE 269
painted picture on copper, representing " The Marriage of St. Catherine " ;
while by Albano is a " Virgin and Child," also on copper, probably painted
from his own wife and child, whom he delighted to use as models for his
pictures ; and an "Annunciation," by Paul Veronese. Parmigiano is
responsible for four works, two of which are small full-length figures on panel
of St. Peter and St. Paul, originally inserted in the door of a room ; and
there is a small finished sketch on copper for the well-known " Vision
of St. Jerome " in the National Gallery ; while the fourth is " The
Marriage of St. Catherine," also on copper, which was formerly in the
Borghese Palace, whence it was brought to England by Mr. Ottley, and
sold to Mr. Morland from whom Lord Grosvenor purchased it.
Biscaino, whose works are few and little known, for he died of the
plague when only twenty-five, gives us a " Holy Family " in a landscape,
although his forte was historical subjects ; the picture here is one of the
few that hang in a somewhat indifferent light, but that unquestionable
authority thought great things of it is proved by Young's assertion that
Sir Joshua Reynolds once offered no less than X^ooo for it ; and lastly,
before we turn to other schools, there is a " St. Agnes," on copper, by
Domenichino, which was one of the pictures purchased for Lord Grosvenor
in Italy by Mr. Dalton.
Of the two Murillos which hang in this room, one represents " St.
John and the Lamb," a subject the painter never seemed tired of repro-
ducing ; the other, a perfect little work, shows us the Infant Saviour
asleep. The former was once in the collection of Mr. Andrew Wilson,
whence it was purchased by Lord Grosvenor about 1810; while the
latter was one of the Agar-Ellis pictures.
There are no less than four Nicholas Poussins in the Saloon, one being
a finished study for one of the groups in the well-known picture of
" Moses Striking the Rock " at Bridgewater House ; this portion of the
work being that in which the mother is shown, giving drink to one of her
children, while the other looks up as if in anticipation of its share, and,
behind, the father is clasping his hands in gratitude. The second is a
" Holy Family with Angels," which was purchased at the sale of Lord
Lansdowne's gallery, in 1806, a most rich and beautiful work, represent-
ing Tivoli, with the Temple of the Sybil, and originally came from Lord
Waldegrave's collection in 1763, at which time Lord Ashburnham bought
the companion picture by Gaspar Poussin. The third tells the story of
Areas and Calisto, and came from the Agar-Ellis collection ; while the
fourth, " Infants at Play," is such a lovely little work that one can quite
believe the story that Beckford offered Agar-Ellis 1 000 guineas for it ;
it has been engraved several times.
2 70 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
There are also here three superlatively fine Claudes ; one a " Riposo,"
on copper ; another a landscape known, as I have before stated, with
its companion which hangs in the Dining Room, as " The Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire " ; and showing the ruins of Rome in the
middle distance ; and the third another fine landscape.
The productions of the Dutch and Flemish masters that hang in the
Saloon are of the highest merit. It is hopeless to say anything adequate
about their beauty, but I must at least say a word. First, then, is the
" River Scene," by Cuyp, in which we get a view of Dort in the evening,
illumined by that warm and transparent colouring which is hardly sur-
passed by the two great pictures by the master at Dorchester House
and Bridgewater House respectively. Then there is a wonderful Gerard
Dou, of a mother nursing her child, painted with all the minuteness of
Metsu, and at the same time, with a breadth of treatment which Metsu
was hardly capable of attaining.
The example here of Paul Potter's art shows us a landscape with
dairy farm and figures, seen in the light of a warm summer afternoon.
This beautiful work was painted for the artist's patron, Heer van SHnge-
landt, of Dordrecht. When his collection was dispersed, in 1785, it was
sold for ;^750 ; later, at the sale of the Tolozan collection, it fetched
^1082; then Mr. Crawford of Rotterdam acquired it for ^1350; but
subsequently the Marquis of Westminster gave only ;^iooo for it. To-
day it is probably worth six or seven times that amount. The land-
scape is said to represent the country between the Hague and Geestburg,
and the chateau in the distance is that of Binkhorst, which is still
standing.^
Notwithstanding the beauty and interest of many of the pictures in
the Saloon, I think the gem of this room must be allowed to be " The
Salutation," by Rembrandt, which shows " St. Elizabeth receiving
the Virgin." It was painted when the artist was thirty-four, and is
dated 1640. Waagen considers it " so masterly in composition, in
handling, lighting, and glow of chiaroscuro, as to be nearly on a par
with ' The Woman taken in Adultery,' in the National Gallery " ; and
this high praise has been confirmed by other critics ; while M. Michel,
in his life of Rembrandt, gives a detailed description of the work,
which, however, I do not repeat, as, except from a technical point of
view, such descriptions are, it seems to me, not very satisfactory, and,
in a book of this kind, would be merely tiresome. The picture, which,
by-the-bye, like that of the work in the National Gallery to which it
has been compared, has an oval top, formerly belonged to the King of
' Cundall in his Life of Potter.
GROSVENOR HOUSE 271
Sardinia, and was brought to this country, in 1812, by M. Erard, from
whom the second Earl Grosvenor purchased it.
There is also, in this room, an exceedingly fine Hobbema, which
merits long and close attention ; it is a forest scene, and the figures intro-
duced are by Lingelbach. This beautiful work was formerly in the
possession of M. Fizian of Amsterdam, from whom Mr. Agar-Ellis pur-
chased it ; it has been engraved by Mason.
I must make an end ; but before I do so, let me draw attention to
" The Virgin and Child," by Adrian Van der Werff, which fascinating
work was painted for the master's patron, the Elector Palatine, who gave
it to Cardinal Ottoboni, from whose family it passed into the Agar-Ellis
gallery ; and also to the consummate " Dismissal of Hagar," by Rubens,
in which picture the expression and attitude of Sarah struck Mrs.
Siddons so forcibly that she deemed them worthy of her admiration
and study.^
The Gallery, with the Rubens Room at the end, occupies the newer
portion of Grosvenor House, which I spoke of earlier in this chapter.
It is a truly magnificent apartment, with an extraordinarily fine and
massive ceiling divided into square compartments, with heavily gilded
cornices and a painted frieze representing the arts. The great doors
are of mahogany picked out in gold, and there is a white marble mantel-
piece of immense proportions and most beautiful design. In this apart-
ment stand marble busts of the late Duke and Duchess of Westminster, and
Lord Ronald Gower's statue of Marie Antoinette on her way to execution.
Here is a table of lapis lazuli mounted in ormolu ; there a wonderful clock
in tortoise-shell inlaid with mother-of-pearl and decorated with ormolu
figures and porcelain columns ; in another part of the room is one of those
Italian cabinets for which all the known semi-precious stones of the
world seem to have been gathered together, and forming a miniature
temple. Bronze figures of women uphold ormolu flowers to cast light
upon the chamber, and columns of ebony, enriched with festoons and
arabesques in ormolu, bear on their sides the ducal crest and coronet,
and are surmounted by bronze figures of cupids supporting on their heads
covered baskets of richly chased ormolu. Indeed nothing that wealth can
suggest or taste and ingenuity create, seems wanting in this magnificent
apartment.
Like all the principal rooms at Grosvenor House, the Gallery is filled
with fine pictures ; and if there is some doubt attached to the authen-
ticity of one or two of the canvases here, they are far outbalanced by the
beauty and genuineness of the greater part of the pictures in this apart-
' See a note in the Private Catalogue.
272 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
ment. The Raphael — a " Holy Family," from the Agar-Ellis collection-
is a copy, 'tis said the best extant, of the original which has been lost,
and which had some affinity to the " Vierge au Linge " in the Louvre ;
the authenticity of Giovanni Bellini's " Madonna and Child with four
Saints," has also been questioned, but it has an intrinsic interest, in that
it once belonged to F6n61on, who also owned " The Circumcision,"
by the same master, which hangs close by ; and there is little doubt
that the riding school picture, with the Infante Don Balthazar, is only
partially the work of Velasquez, the better part being probably from
the hand of his pupil Mazo ; but the so-called portrait of Rubens and
Elizabeth Brant is undoubtedly from the hand of that great master. It
represents Pausias and Glycera, and was once supposed to indicate the artist
and his wife in this classic guise. The flowers surrounding the figures are
by Velvet Breughal, who so often collaborated with Rubens in this way.
Besides these there are nearly a score of pictures in the Gallery, and of
some of the most important I must say a few words. In the first place
there is a remarkable Rembrandt, representing a landscape with men draw-
ing a net from the river, which figures are said to have been introduced
by Teniers, to whom the picture once belonged. Indeed Waagen casts
some doubt on Rembrandt having had a hand in the composition at all,
rather attributing it to his school, of which it is certainly, if this assump-
tion be correct, a very fine example. Lord Grosvenor bought the work
from M. de la Hannte, in 1820.
Close to this hangs a picture about which no doubt is possible :
Turner's " Conway Castle," which the late Duke of Westminster pur-
chased for 2800 guineas, from the Wynn-Ellis collection in 1876, at the sale
in which was sold the famous " Duchess of Devonshire," by Gainsborough. ^
Another beautiful landscape is by Gaspar Poussin, one of the Agar-
Ellis pictures ; and still another, attributed to Titian, although it has
also been assigned, by Waagen, to Gaspar Po issin or one of his school.
The latter work was purchased in Italy, about the year 1783, by Gavin
Hamilton, from whom Mr. Agar-Ellis acquired it. There are two other
works by Titian in the Gallery ; the first being " The Woman taken in
Adultery," which, according to Young, was brought from the Barberini
Palace by a French officer, and afterwards came into the possession of
M. de la Hannte, from whom Lord Grosvenor purchased it ; the other,
a reflica of the famous canvas in the Dresden Gallery, representing
" Christ and the Tribute Money."
From the Calonne Gallery came the " Holy Family " by Paul Veronese ;
while the landscape by Philip de Koningh is a beautiful example of this
master's methods on an unusually large scale.
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274 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Rubens with Vandyck's added grace ; and the portrait of the painter
and his wife by Teniers the younger. The former came from the Agar-
Ellis collection, and both Waagen and Mrs. Jameson draw attention to
the dignity and poetical sentiment of the work ; while from its warmth
of tone and transparency of colouring it is conjectured that the artist
painted it after his return from Italy when the influence of the sunny
south was fresh in his receptive mind. The latter work was executed in
1649, as is proved by the inscription on it ; it represents the painter and
his wife, Anne Breughal (daughter of Velvet Breughal, and an adopted
daughter of Rubens), in conversation with their old gardener, close by
the cottage of the latter, while Teniers's chateau is seen in the distance.
The picture was originally in the collection of the Chevalier Verhulst,
whence it passed, in 1779, into the hands of M. Le Brun, for the sum of
^^85. From M. Le Brun it was bought by Lord Lansdowne for £i()2 ;
and subsequently Lord Grosvenor became its possessor at the greatly
enhanced, but as it seems now, very small, price of £^^6.
In this room is also to be specially noted a picture of two angels, by
Rubens, probably studies for a larger work ; and a " Triumph of Venus,"
by Albano, most beautiful and almost Titian-like in warmth and depth of
colouring.
Although a number of pictures hang in other parts of Grosvenor House,
and particularly in the Corridor, where among others is a luminous and
excellent view of the seashore on the Normandy coast, by that fine and
too short-lived painter Bonington, these need no specific notice ; but
before we leave this palace of art, a word must be said about some of
the paintings hanging in the Ante-Drawing Room. Here, for example,
is a fine landscape by Gaspar Poussin, and a study of flowers by that
scarce master, Mignon ; while there is a landscape with cattle by Karel
du Jardin ; an interesting study of a " spotted horse " by Cuyp ; and
a characteristic landscape with itinerant musicians by Le Nain. By
the side of these works, as if to accentuate the catholicity of taste
observable throughout this wondrous collection, is what Mrs. Jameson
calls, and rightly calls, " a divine little picture," by Fra Bartolomeo ; *
a landscape with the meeting of David and Abigail, by Domenichino ;
and a " Virgin and Child " by Pietro da Cortona ; and just as one thinks
one has seen all, the eye is attracted by the warmth of the landscape
which Jan Both painted and in which the figures were put in by his
brother Andrew.
' It will be remembered that Baccio della Porta, as he was properly named, became a
Dominican in 1500, being deeply afflicted by the death of his friend Savonarola.
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276 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
there was also another library on the ground floor, and still one more
on the first floor, out of which the Ante-Room, with its circular end,
was reached.^
Lord Shelburne's bedroom was on the ground floor, where in fact
the present study is, while his dressing-room was, curiously enough, on
the first floor, and on the opposite side of the house.
The mansion was erected for Lord Bute about the middle of the
eighteenth century, and, as happened when Clarendon built his splendid
residence in Piccadilly a century earlier, the populace chose to see
in this magnificent pile the results of peculation and political chicanery.
Lord Bute was always an unpopular minister, perhaps the most
unpopular of those who have presided over the destinies of this country,
and whatever he did was immediately construed into something inimical
to the good of the people, and whatever personal success he attained as
the result of jobbery. Reasons were not wanting, as when are they if
required to pull to shreds an already tottering reputation ? On
February 10, 1763, the Peace of Paris had been signed, and although
by that treaty France, then our traditional enemy, ceded to Great
Britain, Canada, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton (about which the
Duke of Newcastle was so notoriously ignorant according to the well-
known anecdote). Mobile, and all the territory east of the Mississippi,
Dominica, Tobago, St. Vincent, and Grenada, and received in return
little, if we except St. Lucia, but those islands which perpetual earth-
quakes have made at best uncertain possessions, yet this country was not
satisfied, simply, it may be conjectured, because the minister in power
was the unpopular Lord Bute ; and it was the fashion to attribute the
money spent on building Lansdowne House, which was commenced soon
afterwards, to the Prime Minister's so-called betrayal of his country. Lord
Bute, however, never occupied the house, for, in 1765, he sold it, as it then
stood, still unfinished, to the Earl of Shelburne, for less than it is supposed
to have then already cost him ; the price he received being ^22,500.
By a curious coincidence, its new owner was nearly as unpopular as its
old, and when Lord Shelburne became responsible for the Peace of
Versailles, in 1783, it was scandalously asserted that, whereas the mansion
had been built by one peace, it was paid for by another. The accusation
has in it a far too rhetorical ring to convey much confidence in its accuracy,
and is somewhat on a par with Burke's indecent invective against Shel-
burne, when he attributed his not acting as a Cataline or a Borgia simply
' It is interesting to see that the powdering closets attached to Lord Shelburne's dressing-
room and to that of Lady Shelburne, are much larger than the servants' rooms adjoining,
which appear to be mere cupboards.
LANSDOWNE HOUSE 277
to his want of the necessary understanding ; which, by-the-bye, reminds
us so forcibly of a celebrated passage in one of Junius's ^ letters directed
against the Duke of Grafton, as to give colour to the theory advanced
by some, that those letters were the production of Burke himself.
Lord Shelburne appears to have been on the look-out for a site on
which to build a residence for some time previous to his purchase of Lord
Bute's unfinished home, and that he employed one of the Adam brothers
to find a suitable spot is evidenced by a letter of Charles James Fox,
dated June 29, 1761, and addressed to Lord Shelburne, in the course
of which he says : " I see you have ordered Mr. Adam to look out for
space to build an Hotel upon " ; and he proceeds to mention, as a likely
situation, the very site on which Lord Bute built the house which Lord
Shelburne was eventually to purchase, describing it as " a fine piece of
ground . . . still to be had, the garden of which, or the court before
which, may extend all along the bottom of Devonshire garden, though
no house must be built there ; the house must be where some old paltry
stables stand at the lower end of Bolton Row."
Both Lord Leicester and Lord Digby had also been in negotiation for
the ground, but neither, for some reason, had settled on it, and Lord
Shelburne's similar hesitancy resulted in its being snapped up by Lord
Bute,^ who, however, as we have seen, was never destined to inhabit the
great house which he commenced to build on its site. Whether it was
that he feared to intensify the extraordinary animus against him which
he had already created in the minds of the people, by inhabiting so
palatial a mansion ; or whether it was that the expenses attendant on it
threatened to make too great an inroad on his resources, I know not, but,
at any rate, he sold the place to the Earl of Shelburne.
Apart from the expense of furnishing, Lord Shelburne must have laid
out a considerable sum in completing the house and improving the
gardens, which latter, were those of Devonshire House not contiguous,
would be unique for so central a position in the West End.
In Lady Shelburne's Diary, several references are made to the new
possession ; but although she expresses herself pleased with it, and terms
' A propos it may not be generally known that Lord Shelburne was aware of the identity
of Junius, and had promised to make known the secret, but death prevented his doing so,
unhappily for the peace of the world, which is periodically disturbed by discussions on this
tiresome subject. He once told Sir Richard Phillips that "he knew Junius, and knew all
about the writing and production of those letters," and he further affirmed that " Junius has
never yet been publicly named. None of the parties ever guessed at as Junius was the true
Junius." But let us remember Lord Beaconsfield's famous advice on this subject — and say
no more about it.
- In 1764 he was living in Albemarle Street, and later, till his death in 1792, at 73 South
Audley Street. It will be remembered that he was Prime Minister from May 1762 to
April 1763.
278 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
it " very noble," at the same time, reading between the hnes, we can
see that her ladyship would naturally enough have been better content
to have entered into possession of a completed house.
PoHtically Lord Shelburne, who was First Lord of the Treasury
from July 1782 to February 1783, was unpopular ; and the Peace for
which he was responsible in the latter year was a source of much heart-
burning among the people, who, ready enough to mix private and public
actions, regarded it as little less than a money-making manoeuvre.
But Lord Shelburne was not a man of this sort ; and even Jeremy
Bentham has recorded that " his manner was very imposing, very
dignified," while Wraxall adds that " in his person, manners, and address,
the Earl wanted no external quahty to captivate or concihate mankind."
This quotation from Wraxall draws my attention to a longer account
which he has left of Lord Shelburne, and which I quote in extenso because
it gives some indication as well of the habitues of the great house about
which I am writing : " No individual in the Upper House attracted so
much national attention from his accomplishments, talents, and extensive
information on all subjects of foreign or domestic poUcy, as the Earl of
Shelburne. In the prime of life and in the full vigour of his faculties,
he displayed whenever he rose to speak, an intimate knowledge of Europe,
together with such a variety of matter, as proved him eminently qualified
to fill the highest situation . . . nor was that nobleman less versed in
all the principles of finance and revenue, than in the other objects of
poUtical study that form a statesman. His house, or more properly to
speak, his palace in Berkeley Square, which had formerly constituted the
residence of the Earl of Bute, formed at once the centre of a consider-
able party, as well as the asylum of taste and science. It is a fact, that
during the latter years of Lord North's administration, he retained three
or four clerks in constant pay and employment under his own roof, who
were solely occupied in copying State papers or accounts. Every measure
of finance adopted by the First Minister passed, if I may so express myself,
through the alembic of Shelburne House, where it was examined and
severely discussed. There, while Dunning and Barre met to settle their
plan of action . . . omniscient Jackson furnished every species of legal
or general knowledge. Dr. Price and Mr. Baring produced financial plans,
or made arithmetical calculations, meant to controvert and overturn, or
to expose those of the First Lord of the Treasury : while Dr. Priestly,
who lived under the Earl of Shelburne's personal protection, prosecuted
in the midst of London, his philosophical and chemical researches."
Notwithstanding his many fine qualities, his splendid hospitality,
and his remarkable endowments of mind, or perhaps on this very account,
LANSDOWNE HOUSE 279
Lord Shelburne was accused by his opponents of duplicity and insincerity.
George III. is known to have termed him " the Jesuit of Berkeley
Square " ; and Junius called him ' Malagrida,' in allusion to the
Portuguese Jesuit of that name ; ti propos of which it is said that Gold-
smith once na'ively remarked to Lord Shelburne himself, that he could
not understand why he should be so called, " for ' Malagrida ' was a very
good sort of man."
Reynolds has left a portrait of Lord Shelburne, which indicates any-
thing but duplicity or insincerity ; and yet political hatred was even able
to twist his Lordship's features into an indication of falsehood ; ^ and
Hayward tells the following story of Gainsborough who also once attempted
to transfer these lineaments to canvas. Lord Shelburne complained that
the portrait was not like him, and the painter was forced to agree, and
asked that he might be allowed to try again. FaiUng in this second
attempt, he is said to have thrown down his brushes, exclaiming, " D — n
it, I never could see through varnish, and there's an end."
A modern historian says of Lord Shelburne that " most of his political
ideas were in advance of his time," and this is, perhaps, sufficient to
account for the odium he had to endure and the antagonism he constantly
encountered. The populace is too willing to judge eminent men from
its own more restricted standards, and to see dishonest motives where none
exist, especially when it becomes the ignorant tool of interested political
wire-pullers. But matters of such import are not properly within my ken
here ; and it is more interesting to know that Lord Shelburne extended the
hospitality of Lansdowne House to Dr. Priestly, on which fact, Brougham
once asserted its chief claim to fame would be based ; and that he filled
his house with fine pictures and furniture, with a magnificent collection
of books and manuscripts, and above all, with that unrivalled assemblage
of statuary which is still to be found there.
In the January of 1771, the first Lady Shelburne (n^e Lady Sophia
Carteret, daughter of John, Earl Granville) died, and the bereaved
husband set out for Italy soon after. Here his attention was turned
to the relics of ancient art, which in those days were to be had almost
for the asking, and with the help of Gavin Hamilton, the Scotch painter
and antiquary, who remained in Italy after Lord Shelburne had returned
home, he gradually acquired some of the most notable pieces. Hamilton,
whom Goethe eulogises, was a man full of knowledge and resource, and
above all, enthusiasm, and on behalf of his patron he superintended
those excavations in the neighbourhood of Rome which yielded such a
rich harvest ; and for some time he was occupied in forwarding to London
' Wraxall.
2 8o THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
the results of his labours in this direction. The many letters ^ he wrote
to Lord Shelburne sufficiently show the loving care he expended over
the collection of these treasures. Nor was he less solicitous about their
housing, and he prepared the outlines of a scheme for their reception,
of which the present magnificent Sculpture Gallery, formed by the
enlargement of Adam's original Library, was the key-note.
The fine Library, consisting of priceless manuscripts and printed
books, the beautiful furniture, and valuable pictures were not long
destined to grace the palace to which they once gave an added splendour.
Lord Shelburne, who had been created Marquis of Lansdowne in 1784,
died in 1805, and was succeeded in the titles by his son, John Henry, the
" tall personable man, rather regardless of his dress," who soon after gave
directions for the dispersal of these literary and artistic treasures. Luckily
for this country, the British Museum purchased the famous Lansdowne
manuscripts ; but the books and pictures were scattered far and wide.
These manuscripts, for which Lord Sandwich, the celebrated " Jemmy
Twitcher," once offered in exchange, a " wild beast " for the menagerie
which was at that time kept at Wycombe, were only saved by the merest
chance from destruction, for a bargain had been struck with a cheese-
monger who was to have had the whole for ^10. When it is remembered
that the documents include the collections of Bishop Kennet, and Le
Neve, the heraldic writer, and comprise many of the State papers of the
Cecils, as well as those of Sir Julius Caesar, and a variety of other papers
where, as has been said, " the past history of England might be read from
the time of Henry VL to the time of the Star Chamber, and from the
time of the Star Chamber to the reign of George HL," it will be
realised what invaluable records were preserved by their subsequent
purchase by the British Museum, with, by-the-bye, the first sum of
money ever voted by Parliament for such a purpose."
The first sale of pictures was conducted by Messrs. Coxe, Burrell and
Foster, on the premises, on March 19 and 20, 1806, and fifty-six pictures
were disposed of ; on which occasion, inter alia, Rubens's " Adoration of
the Magi " realised 800 guineas ; Claude's " St. Paul carried into Bondage,"
510 guineas ; and " A Riposo " by Nicholas Poussin, 530 guineas. Four
years later Mr. Christie sold another portion which had been removed
to his rooms, on May 25 and 26, when two works by Salvator Rosa,
" Diogenes casting away his Golden Cup," and " Heraclitus in Contem-
plation," fetched 980 and 950 guineas respectively.^
' These have been privately printed together with a catalogue of the ancient marbles.
' See Fitzmaurice's Life of Shelburne, vol. i. p. 311.
' See Redford's Art Sales, and Annals of Christie's.
Photo J Russell 6. Sons.
THE SCULPTURE GALLERY, LANSDOWNE HOUSE.
ll
I .1
I •■ , f:
2 82 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
specially designed to receive it, but various pieces are now to be found
in other parts of the mansion ; such as the Esculapius, a fine relief over
the chimney-piece of the Entrance Hall, which Waagen, curiously enough,
does not mention; and the sleeping figure, the last work of Canova,
having some affinity to the celebrated Hermaphroditus in the Louvre,
which is to-day placed in the Dining Room. This apartment is probably
Adam's masterpiece of internal decoration ; and although purists may find
it over elaborate, and echo Walpole's dictum about the " harlequinades
of Adam," yet it cannot be denied that, in its particular style, it is as
complete an example as seems humanly possible.
If the formation of the collection of sculpture at Lansdowne House
is due to the first Marquis, and its preservation to the second ; the third,
and in some respects the most notable of these holders of the title, is
responsible for the fine gallery of pictures which to-day hang on the
walls of the mansion.
Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice was the half-brother of the second Marquis,
being the son of the first by his marriage, en second noces, with
Lady Louisa Fitzpatrick, daughter of John, Earl of Upper-Ossory. As
a political figure he bulks largely in the history of the reigns of William IV.
and Victoria. Three times was he Lord President of the Council, and
from 1827 to 1828, he was Secretary of State for the Home Department ;
while from 1855 to 1858, he was a Cabinet Minister without office, an indi-
cation that his party was anxious to profit by his advice and experience,
even when advancing years precluded him from taking an active part in
any particular department. He was indeed, the Nestor of the Liberal
party, and the Princess Lieven, writing in 1827, speaks of his being " the
most distinguished of the great aristocrats of this country, without a
spot on his great reputation." But if his political fame is thus firmly
based on his integrity and other sterling qualities, his reputation as an
art patron and a friend of literature is still better known, and perhaps
more often recorded ; and it is safe to say that hardly an aspirant to
artistic or literary fame who was brought to his notice, or whom he
personally discovered, failed to benefit by his generous advice and princely
protection. When he succeeded to the title only a relatively few family
portraits were left to represent the fine gallery which the first Marquis had
collected, and he at once set to work to fill the gap which had been created
by the sale of these treasures. In the first place he purchased from the
widow of his half-brother the famous marbles which had been left her ;
and his care then extended to the formation of a fresh collection of
pictures. In this he not only showed the catholicity of his taste but also
the soundness of his judgment. Some collectors limit their acquisitions
LANSDOWNE HOUSE 283
either wholly to the " old masters," as they are called, or to the works
of living painters. Lord Lansdowne combined the two, and thus if he
commissioned Leslie to depict one of those delightful scenes from the
life of Sir Roger de Coverley, he at the same time was ready to purchase
Rembrandt's portrait of himself ; and so we find Calcott next to Caracci,
and Frank Stone by the side of Sebastian del Piombo.*
Although there is no specific Picture Gallery at Lansdowne House,
the fact that the Reception Rooms lead one into another and are all
more or less filled with works of art, gives the appearance of one, without
the monotony of over large wall spaces ; and in the Drawing Room, the
Library, the Sitting Room, the Ante-Room, we still find some of the great
painters of the world represented.
The superb portrait of Count Federigo da Bizzola, by Sebastian del
Piombo, purchased from the Ghizzi family at Naples, hangs in the
Drawing Room ; as does Lodovico Caracci's " Christ on the Mount of
Olives," originally in the Guistiniani collection, as well as a " Holy Family "
by the same painter. Antonio Caracci, that rare master, is represented
by a " Virgin and Child," of great beauty and warmth of tone ; while Carlo
Dolce is responsible for another rendering of the same subject.
There are four or five Velasquezs ; one a portrait of himself, another
that of the Conde d'Olivarez, the great Minister of Philip IV., both of
which pictures were formerly in the possession of Godoy, " Prince of
Peace," as he was called ; while two landscapes from the same brush
which hang here were formerly in the Royal Palace at Madrid and were
brought from Spain, by Mr. Bourke, the Danish Minister, at the time
of the French occupation. Another interesting work by the same hand
represents a noble Spanish child lying in his cradle ; and was one of
those belonging to the first Marquis of Lansdowne.
Two other works in this room had their provinance from the Borghese
collection ; " The Prodigal Son," by Guercino, originally in the Colonna
Gallery at Rome, and Domenichino's picture of St. Cecilia, which was
purchased by Lucien Bonaparte, who sold it to the Queen of Etruria ;
after which it came into this country with the Lucca collection, in 1840."
Murillo is represented by an " Immaculate Conception," a subject he is
believed to have painted no less than twenty times, of unusually full
colouring. There also formerly hung here a female portrait, by Rembrandt,
signed, and dated 1642, which came from Lord Wharncliffe's gallery,
' On one occasion Lord Lansdowne did refuse to become a purchaser ; it was when
Marshal Soult offered him his collection of Miirillos — his spoils during the Peninsular
Campaign — for which he asked the sum of ^100,000, as Creevy records.
- Mrs. Jameson.
284 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
but this, together with his portrait of himself, from the Danoot collec-
tion at Brussels, which was purchased by Lord Lansdowne from M.
Nieuwenhuys for /[800, are here no longer ; while the marvellous canvas,
known as " Rembrandt's Mill," is now at Bowood. Waagen, when he
saw the two former pictures, was enthusiastic about their merits, even
going so far, with regard to the latter, as to state that " among the
portraits which Rembrandt has bequeathed of himself in his later years,
this ranks foremost for animated conception, broad and yet careful
treatment."
Two portraits by Reynolds hang in the Drawing Room ; of these,
" The Girl with a Muff," a replica of a former work, was purchased by
Lord Lansdowne at the Thomond sale (it will be remembered that
Reynolds' favourite niece, Mary Palmer, to whom he bequeathed the
bulk of his property, married the Marquis of Thomond), in 1 82 1, for
265 guineas. The other work represents Elizabeth Drax, who became
the wife of the fourth Earl of Berkeley, in 1744, and whom I find among
Sir Joshua's sitters for October 1759.
Another example of Reynolds deserves a word ; notably the portrait
of Lady Ilchester, first wife of the second Earl, and her two daughters,
which was painted during the spring of 1779. One of the children —
Lady Louisa Fox-Strangways — was their fourth daughter, and became the
wife of the third Marquis of Lansdowne, in 1808. This beautiful picture
hangs in the Sitting Room, in company with Tintoretto's portrait of
Andrew Doria, and Ostade's " Winter Scene in Holland," which Waagen
calls " a chef (Tceuvre in every respect."
In the Ante-Room there is a particularly interesting work by Eckhardt,
representing Sir Robert Walpole and his first wife, Catherine Shorter,
with Houghton Hall in the background. The dogs in the picture
were painted by Wotton, while the portraits of Sir Robert and Lady
Walpole were copied by Eckhardt from miniatures by Zincke. Additional
interest is given to this work by the fact that it is enclosed in a frame
carved by Grinling Gibbons, in which, among a profusion of fruit, flowers,
cupids and birds, the arms of the Walpole family are introduced. The
picture originally belonged to Horace Walpole, who fully describes it in
his account of Strawberry Hill, where it hung over the chimney-piece
in the Blue Bed Chamber. Near it now hangs Gonzales Coques's
portrait of " An Architect and his Wife " ; while two other portraits
deserve attention : one of Francis Horner, the politician and political
economist, by Raeburn, and Lawrence's well-known picture of the third
Marquis of Lansdowne.
One of Vandyck's innumerable presentments of Henrietta Maria
LANSDOWNE HOUSE 285
is in the Library, where may also be seen no less than four Reynolds
portraits — those of Kitty Fisher, Garrick, Horace Walpole, and Sterne.
That of Garrick is the famous one, so often reproduced, showing the
great actor looking straight at the spectator, with his hands clasped and
the thumbs placed together. It was painted in 1776, and is a remark-
able example of that " momentary " quality which Northcote considered
so distinguishing a characteristic of Reynolds' methods.-' The Sterne
is equally well known, and the wig slightly awry which is so noticeable
a feature in the portrait has been accounted for by the fact that " while
he was sitting, his wig had continued to get itself a little on one side ;
and the painter, with that readiness in taking advantage of accident to
which we owe so many of the delightful novelties in his works, painted
it so." -
The portrait of Kitty Fisher, with a parrot on her hand, was probably
the one executed in 1759 ; " that small open mouth would have been
too trifling for any other action than that of speaking to a parrot," is
Lady Eastlake's comment ; while the presentment of Walpole is a replica
of that painted, I believe, in 1756, and engraved by Merdell. The
original picture was formerly in the Marquis of Hertford's collection ;
the one here was executed for Mr. Grosvenor Bedford, from whose family
it was purchased.
Besides these, we find hanging on the walls of the Library, Pope
by Jervas, and Flaxman by Jackson, General Middleton by Gainsborough,
which, by-the-bye, was long thought to be a likeness of Benjamin Franklin ;
and a portrait of an Italian architect, once erroneously supposed to
represent Sansovino, who designed the Palazzo Cornaro at Venice, by
Gior^ione.
'&"
In noting these various works I have, of course, only mentioned
a few of the pictures in Lansdowne House ; but I have endeavoured to
draw attention to those which seemed, for a variety of reasons, best worth
notice. A complete catalogue ^ would have embraced the names of the
chief exponents of the Italian, Dutch, and early English schools, as
well as those of the contemporaries of the third Marquis, to whom he
was so munificent a patron, such as Leslie and Calcott, Collins and
Wilkie. Of the first named we have " Sir Roger de Coverley going to
' See Leslie and Taylor's Lt/c of Reynolds.
^ Ibid. Sterne sat in 1760. The picture was painted for Lord Ossory, and came into
the possession of Lord Holland. It was purchased by Lord Lansdowne for 500 guineas.
' The Private Catalogue of the pictures here and at Bowood has kindly been lent me by
the Marquis of Lansdowne. In it are recorded over 350 pictures ; some of first-rate importance,
and all having some points of artistic or intrinsic interest.
286 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
Church," a subject he had treated before for James Dunlop, and which
he repeated at the request of his patron ; Calcott gives us a portrait of
Lady Calcott, and a work entitled, " Shepherd Boys." Collins painted
three pictures for Lord Lansdowne — his " Birdcatchers," in 1814; "The
Saviour in the Temple," in 1840; and two years later the " Family about
to leave their Native Shore " ; while Wilkie's " Sick Lady," executed in
1809, was purchased for ;^I50, by the Marquis, who also became the
possessor of a later work ; " Monks at Confession." The same painter
executed, too, a portrait of Lady Lansdowne, a propos of which Haydon
writes, in his Diary, for September 20, 1808 : " Wilkie breakfasted with
me, on his return from Lord Lansdowne's, a portrait of whose lady he has
brought home which is truly exquisite ; I had no idea of his being capable
of so much : it gives me real pleasure." ^
Just as to-day Lansdowne House is famous as a political and social
centre, so in the time of the third Marquis was it the meeting-place for
the great and the brilliant. Abraham Hayward, who was one of its
notable habitues, has left descriptions of the reunions here, and has
affirmed how " the guests . . . were so selected that the host took care
that all should share in the conversation, and when they were reassembled
in the Drawing Room, he would adroitly coax them into groups, or
devote himself for a minute or two carelessly and without effort to the
most retiring or least known."
The political history of this period contains the numberless names
of those who gathered here to benefit by Lord Lansdowne's experience
or to seek his valued advice. It would be tiresome, if easily practicable,
to give them here ; but at least some of the literary notabilities who were
honoured guests may be mentioned. Tom Moore was, of course, a
constant visitor both here and at Bowood ; and his gentle spirit will hardly
complain if I term him the " tame cat " of Lansdowne House. His
Diary is full of references to dinners and dances at the ' palace ' in
Berkeley Square, and we know that he did not disdain the pleasure pro-
duced by reading in the next morning's paper that " the Marquis of
Lansdowne entertained Mr. Thomas Moore and a number of other
literary and scientific gentlemen at dinner at Lansdowne House " ! or on
another occasion in being the only plain " mister " among the guests
that included royalty downwards ! ^
Here, too, were to be met Allen, of Holland House fame ; Sydney
Smith, who kept the table in a roar, and his hardly less amusing brother
" Bobus " — " short, apt, and pregnant," as Moore terms him ; Luttrell
' Some of these relatively modern works have now been removed to Bowood.
" See references in his Diary, passim.
LANSDOWNE HOUSE 287
and Fonblanque ; Macaulay, of whose " range of knowledge anything
may be believed " ; Rogers, with his sepulchral face and bitter tongue ;
Hallam, who, as Rogers once said, fought (in argument) with Macaulay
over him, " as if I was a dead body " ; Dickens in the reflected fame
of his earUer works, and Head with the lesser glory of his more ephemeral
" Bubbles " ; Schlegel agonising Rogers with his loud voice and " un-
necessary use of it," and startling others by his egotism ; and Madame
de Stael, a fitting female counterpart, taking her " premeditated stand,"
in the saloon, in order to attract attention.
Montalembert has enunciated his mots in those rooms where Thiers
has fallen asleep under the influence of Macaulay's swelling periods ;
Payne Knight has given voice to a hazardous joke about Canova's recum-
bent marble ; and Ticknor has met there, Lady Holland, " very gracious
— or intending to be so."
The list might be almost inexhaustibly continued ; but I think
sufficient has been said to indicate what a number of remarkable men these
rooms have seen ; what a wealth of great and witty sayings these walls
have heard ; and what a broad mind must have been his who loved to
gather together such diverse elements beneath his hospitable roof.
Politics, painting, literature, and science we have seen to have occupied
the catholic mind of the third Marquis ; music also held a place there,
and Dr. Waagen records how " the concerts given by the Marquis in
the splendid saloon offer a rare combination of attraction ; for, while
the ear is beguiled with tones of the most enchanting music, the eye
rests with increased pleasure alternately on the admirably lighted sculp-
ture, and on the numerous specimens of English female beauty."
Such, indeed, was the effect of this " concord of sweet sounds," that
the critic devotes four pages to a discussion on German music, led to
it by the esteem in which the masterpieces of this school were held at
Lansdowne House. This reminds me that the first owner of Lansdowne
House— Lord Bute — was also alive to the influence of music, and Jekyll
told Moore, on one occasion, that there was once a project for placing
an orchestra in an underground chamber from which pipes would conduct
the tuneful sounds into any other room that might be desired. The
third Lord Lansdowne, however, corrected this so far as the orchestra
was concerned, stating that it was an organ that was to produce the music,
but that the pipes were actually discovered, on some alterations being
made to the mansion.
The diaries and memoirs of the period during which Lansdowne
House was a centre of social and political activity, are full of references
2 88 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
to functions of various kinds, and the interesting people in all ranks
of life who have at one time or another met under this hospitable
roof. One or two examples may not be found uninteresting. Thus
Ticknor, who saw so much during his sojourn in this country, and
devoured with activity its great houses and its ever-surprising sights,
notes, on March 28, 1838, being engaged to a party here, " where we
found a very select party, made in honour of the Duchess of Gloucester,
daughter of George III. . . . All the ministry were there . . . the
Duke of Cambridge, the foreign ministers. Lord Jeffrey — just come
to town — Lord and Lady Holland, the last of whom is rarely seen any-
where except at home. . . . Lady Holland was very gracious, or intended
to be so ; and Lord Holland was truly kind and agreeable."
On April 2, Ticknor was again here, and has left, in his Diary, a
particularly interesting vignette of the occasion : " We had," he writes,
" to wait dinner a little for Lord Lansdowne, who, as President of the
Council, had been detained in the House of Lords, fighting with Brougham,
whom he pronounced to be more able and formidable than at any previous
period of his life. Lord Lansdowne seemed in excellent spirits. Not so
Lady Lansdowne. As she went into dinner, surrounded by the most
beautiful monuments of the arts, and sat down with Canova's Venus
behind her, she complained to me, naturally and sincerely, of the weari-
ness of a London life. . . . But the table was brilliant. Senior is always
agreeable, but, by the side of Sydney Smith and Jeffrey, of course he
put in no claim ; and I must needs say, that when I saw Smith's free
good-humour, and the delight with which everybody listened to him, I
thought there were but small traces of the aristocratic oppression of
which he had so complained in the morning. Lord Jeffrey, too, seemed
to be full of good things and good sayings. . . . Fine talk it certainly
was, often brilliant, always enjoyable. The subjects were Parliament
and Brougham ; the theatre and Macready ; reviewing, a -profos of
which the old reviewers hit one another hard ; the literature of the
day, which was spoken of lightly ; Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella,
which Lord Lansdowne said he had bought from its reputation, and
which Milman in his quiet way praised." And again in another entry,
Ticknor speaks of the large parties in Berkeley Square, and of the host who
seemed " more amiable and agreeable than ever," and who " enjoys a green
old age, surrounded with the respect of all, even of those most opposed
to him in politics."
But it is, of course, Moore who gives us the most frequent peeps
into the vie intime of Lansdowne House, and the references in his Diary
are both interesting and valuable because they tell us the names of
LANSDOWNE HOUSE 289
many of the most illustrious guests who were wont to assemble here.
Thus we read, on May 23, 1829: "Dined at Lansdowne House —
company, Baring and Lady Harriet, the Carlisles, the Lord Chancellor
and Lady Lyndhurst, Lord Dudley, &c. Sat next to the Chancellor,
and found him very agreeable." Again, on June 27, 1830: " With Lord
Lansdowne again to meet a large party, Lord Grey, Brougham, the
Carlisles, the Hollands, Sec. &c. The dinner afterwards made some
noise in the newspapers, being represented foolishly as a reconciliation
dinner to Lord Grey." J propos of this feast, Moore notes the next
day that " though the dinner was not quite of so prononcS a character
as the papers would have it, there is no doubt it made a part of a mutual
movement towards a renewal of old friendship that has taken place
between the parties." On another occasion Moore meets Lord Dudley,
noted for his eccentricities, among a crowd of notable guests here ; as
the poet sat next to him, he was able more particularly to note " his
mutterings to himself ; his fastidious contemplation of what he had on
his plate, occasionally pushing about the meat with his fingers, and
uttering low-breathed criticisms upon it," which denotes, as Moore
remarks, that " all is on the verge of insanity." At another time, the
poet dines here in company with Macaulay and Schlegel and Rogers, and
notes that the latter suffered " manifest agony from the German's loud
voice " ; and is pleased that Macaulay's universal knowledge and astounding
memory was able to confirm his assertion that Voltaire's, " superflu, chose
si necessaire," was suggested by a passage in Pascal's Lettres Provinciales ;
and so on and so on !
Indeed from Moore and Creevey to Greville and Ticknor, there is
hardly a journal which can be ransacked without some interesting refer-
ence to this great house and its hospitable owners being found. Those
" cool, grand apartments," as Lady Eastlake called them, have been
the scene of so many notable gatherings that one despairs of doing
justice to a theme which lends itself to so many ramifications. The
brilliant lady whose words I have just quoted, has left an account of
a great concert here, when hardly less than 2000 guests, among whom
were several members of the Royal Family, enjoyed that combination of
the arts for which Lansdowne House has always been celebrated, and
which was the dominant note in the character of the third Marquis.
Politics have been as indissolubly connected with Lansdowne House as
have music and painting ; and here was held the first Cabinet Council of Lord
Grey's Administration ; at which meeting it was resolved that Brougham
should be asked to fill the office of Lord Chancellor. How many hardly
less important meetings have not been assembled here, or what matters
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2 go THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
of State import have not been discussed within its walls, from the time
when the acknowledged head of the Whig party was here to be found
surrounded by the treasures which his large-minded enthusiasm had
brought together, prodigal of his experience and talents in the service
of his country ; to our own day when his descendant, the present Marquis
of Lansdowne, fills, and has filled, posts as onerous and distinguished as
did the third Marquis, and has in them all displayed that courtesy, that
discretion, and those splendid abilities which appear to be the dominant
characteristics of his line !
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stands at the corner of Stanhope Street, and is thus within a stone's
throw of Chesterfield House ; so that a comparison is easy between the
architectural qualifications of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries
as applied to great mansions. There will be, I think, little doubt as
to which excels in beauty and dignity.
Stanhope House is another of the great mansions in this quarter
which have been the outcome of commercial success ; it is thoroughly
mediaeval in treatment, and is not only an interesting, but most successful
experiment in this style, and is obviously beautifully built ; of course,
in such a milieu it may seem rather out of place, but this is an almost
inevitable result in a city like London, where architecture has borrowed
a hundred styles and mixed them all ; and in this, too, Stanhope House
is kept in countenance by No. 26 Park Lane, which was erected by the
late Mr. Alfred Beit, in the manner of an old English country house,
built with stone on which the lichen seems already to have almost taken
its hold, and which only requires Park Lane to be turned into a moat
to make still more realistic. A splendid winter garden, in defiance of
chronology, is attached to the house. Mr. Beit, who died two years ago,
had filled this residence with a wonderful collection of pictures, among
which was that masterpiece of Sir Joshua's, " Lady Cockburn and her
Children," which once hung in the National Gallery, but which, as the
result of legal action, had to be returned to its former possessors. When,
in course of time, it was offered for sale, Mr. Beit became its owner at
an enormous price, and on his death he left it to the nation ; so that
it can again be seen by all the world in its permanent home in Trafalgar
Square.
Among other great houses in Park Lane, I must mention Dudley
House, now the residence of Mr. J. B. Robinson, but formerly the town
house of the late Earl of Dudley, whose crest and coronet may still be
seen on the front of it. Here lived and died the eccentric Earl of Dudley
(so created in 1827), whose absence of mind and habit of " thinking aloud "
were responsible for numberless good stories, and whose gastronomic
propensities were at one time famous. Some one once said of him that he
was a man " who promised much, did little, and died mad," but Madame
de Stael averred that " he was the only man of sentiment she had met in
England." In Dudley House, he collected some fine pictures, chiefly of
the Italian schools, which Waagen saw in 1835, and described with
enthusiasm. The Earl died in 1833, and the late Lord Dudley added
greatly to the collection, spending immense sums on the acquisition of
perfect examples of art, not only as regards pictures, of which the
assemblage brought together here was, as Lady Eastlake says, of the
LONDONDERRY HOUSE 293
finest description, but also china and bric-a-brac ; giving on one occasion
no less than ^10,000 for that wonderful Sevres Garniture de Chemifiee,
which had once been at Croonie Abbey, Lord Coventry's place in
Worcestershire.
After Lord Dudley's death, ninety-one of the most remarkable
pictures from his collection were sold at Christie's, on June 25, 1892,
among them being Raphael's " La Vierge a la Legende," said once to have
been in Charles L's gallery; and the master's famous "Crucifixion," fully
described by Passavant and Waagen ; besides a Hobbema of transcendent
merit.
Next to Dudley House is another of the large mansions in Park Lane,
Brook House, which was designed by T. H. Wyatt, and was for many
years the residence of Lord Tweedmouth, and one of the political centres
of London. Lord .Tweedmouth gave it up some years ago, and to-day
it belongs to Sir Ernest Cassell.
Nearly every house in Park Lane has more or less of interest attached
to it ; but this is not the place to say anything about the memorable
people who have lived here, except where they happen to be associated with
one of the larger mansions which are dotted down it ; let us therefore,
after this rather lengthy excursus, turn our attention to one of the most
interesting of these great mansions, now known as Londonderry House,
but, at an earlier date, called Holdernesse House. True, its exterior
is not elaborate, but, with its double frontage to Hertford Street and
Park Lane, it has an air of solid dignity, rather restful after some of the
flamboyant characteristics of more modern erections in this thoroughfare,
and its interior is extraordinarily fine, and is surprising to those seeing
it for the first time and only able to estimate its potentialities by the
exterior.
Some of the great London houses indicate by their outward appear-
ance their internal size and magnificence, and those who know the
exteriors of Montagu House, Stafford House, Bridgewater House, and
Dorchester House, will readily realise that within they have the spacious
attributes of palaces as well as the magnificence ; but others give no
such indication, and in this respect are like the majority of the better
London residences, in that they are much more commodious within
than they can be judged to be from their outward appearance. London-
derry House is one of these, for although, as we look at it from
Hertford Street or Park Lane, it is Httle more than a large residence, its
interior arrangements are on a scale of size and splendour which bring it
well within the scope of those private palaces about which I am writing.
As in nearly all the great houses of London, Londonderry House has
I
294 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
been as associated with well-known names in the past as it is to-day. It
took its earlier title of Holdernesse House from the fact of its then
being the town residence of the D'Arcys, Earls of Holdernesse. The
last peer of this line died in 1778, and the present house was built
on the site of the former residence, in or about the year 1850, from
the designs of S. & B. Wyatt, the architects. When we see the
treasures of ancient sculpture preserved in the Great Gallery here, it seems
appropriate that the site of the place should have formerly been identified
with one who, as an early member of the Society of Dilettanti, helped
to do much towards the investigation and preservation of those relics
of antiquity which might otherwise have been lost for ever. When,
too, we remember that Lord Holdernesse was a statesman, and was also,
with his wife a daughter of Sieur Doublet a noble of Holland, closely
identified with the fashionable life of his day, it is also appropriate
that their one-time residence should now be in the hands of a member
of a family so closely connected with the political activity of a later time,
and presided over by a lady who has for so long been one of the
acknowledged leaders of society.
The history of the mansion between the period of Lord Holdernesse's
tenancy and that of the third Marquis of Londonderry who was residing
here in the original house in 1836, is somewhat obscure, but it would
seem that the latter purchased the property from Lord Holdernesse, some-
where between the years 1830 and 1835, and that about four years before
his death in 1854, he rebuilt the house, as we have seen, practically as it
remains to-day.
Lord Londonderry, who married twice — first Lady Catherine Bligh,
daughter of the third Earl of Darnley, who died in 181 2; and secondly,
in 1 8 19, Lady Frances Anne, daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Vane-
Tempest and Anne, Countess of Antrim, who survived him — died in
1854. He was a distinguished soldier, indeed one of Wellington's ablest
companions in arms in the Peninsular, as well as during the campaigns
of 1814-15, in which the power of Napoleon was finally overthrown ;
he was also an eminent diplomatist, and among other offices, filled that
of Ambassador to Vienna ; while his half-brother, the second Marquis,
was the well-known politician, who, as Lord Castlereagh, did so much
to crush the ambition of the " Corsican upstart," as it was then the
fashion to call the greatest man of the time.
The third Marquis was succeeded by his son, who died in 1884, and
who was in turn succeeded by his son, the present Marquis, who married
in 1875, Lady Theresa Talbot, daughter of the tenth Earl of Shrewsbury.
The present Lord Londonderry's name is as well known in the political
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296 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
astonishingly bad for one who could on occasion do really fine work ; in
this magnificent portrait, however, he seems to have thrown off the shackles
of his usual convention, and to have produced a genuine masterpiece.
In the Drawing Room there also hangs a portrait of Pitt by Hoppner,
and in the small ante-room at the end, a full-length in pastel of the
present Lady Londonderry by Roberts ; besides which there are here,
as in other parts of the house, many objects of historic interest and
intrinsic value, some of which were presents from the allied Sovereigns
to the third Marquis.
Lady Londonderry's Boudoir is noticeable for two things ; the
superb partly domed ceiling, in which the details of carving and
decoration might alone afford material for many pages of description ;
and the extraordinarily fine collection of china which, in the form of
plates, hangs on the walls, and in that of countless vases and figures,
helps to decorate the already elaborately decorated cabinets that contain
them. The whole effect is one of dazzling beauty, and makes this probably
one of the most charming boudoirs in London. The general effect of
the soft colouring, gros bleu and rose du barri, of the china, harmonises
with the tints of the silk hangings and furniture coverings, and gives
something of an exotic effect to a room whose windows look out on to
the grey vista of Park Lane and the green of the Park beyond.
Another room which contains a few pictures of merit is the Ante-
Room communicating with the Drawing Room. Here hang a " St.
John " by Andrea del Sarto ; and a " Virgin and Child " ascribed to John
Bellini ; a " Holy Family " by Francia ; as well as a " Virgin and Child "
attributed to Bernard van Orlay, or Bernard of Brussels, as he is
sometimes called.
The Great Gallery, used on special occasions as a Ball Room, is a
very fine apartment, lighted from above by a skylight that runs its entire
length. Its decorations are heavily carved and richly gilded, and in
niches in the walls stand beautiful pieces of sculpture, noticeable among
them being Canova's graceful "Dancing Girl," and his fine "Venus," both
famous works of art. Among the portraits that hang here are full-
lengths of the Czars Alexander I., Nicholas I., and Alexander II., of
George IV., and Wellington, and of the second Marquis of Londonderry;
and a head of Napoleon III. is placed over one of the doors.
At that end of the room which opens on to the staircase, is Mr.
Sargent's fine full-length portrait of the present Marquis of London-
derry, as he appeared at the Coronation of King Edward VII., in his
robes, and bearing the Sword of State, which was exhibited at the Royal
Academy a few years ago.
LONDONDERRY HOUSE 297
On the landing which forms a kind of vestibule to the Gallery, hang
two interesting pictures representing Wellington surrounded by his
Generals, Combermere, Picton, Beresford, and the rest ; in one of which
figures the third Marquis of Londonderry, equally notable as a soldier
and a statesman.
Lord Londonderry's Study, a long room divided midway by pillars,
is essentially a working room, crowded with the thousand and one objects
which have solely a personal interest, and which would preclude any
detailed notice in a work such as this, were these things not surrounded
by others of more general interest, such as French furniture and pictures
and candelabra that help to carry the mind back to that great period
of French decorative art when the consummate Riesener and the great
Gouthi^re made artistic every utilitarian object which they touched.
Here, among many evidences of homely twentieth-century comfort, one
is transported by beautiful cabinets and elaborate chandeliers to France
and its gorgeous eighteenth century ; and a portrait of the great Napoleon
carries us from that artistic period to one that seemed in taste and
the changed outlook on life to be removed hundreds of years from it.
The windows of the Study look out on to Hertford Street, and con-
sequently the room is dark and somewhat sombre compared to those
that receive the full light of the Park and the wide thoroughfare which
divides the house from it ; such as, for instance, the Dining Room, from
the windows of which one can gaze on to the fountain at the junction of
Hamilton Place and Park Lane, where Chaucer and Shakespeare and
Spenser are surmounted by a gilded Fame.
In this latter room the dominant note of dead white is relieved by a few
interesting pictures ; characteristic works by Canaletto and Wouvermanns,
Guardi and Van der Cappella, hanging next to portraits of Napoleon L
by Le Fevre, and George HL by Sir William Beechey ; and there is also
a small and quite delightful little picture of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest
by Stroehling.
There is another large Dining Room at the back of the house, con-
structed, I believe, by the third Marquis, which is occasionally used for
ball suppers and such like entertainments, for which it is admirably fitted,
as it lights up well ; otherwise it is a dark room, and thus only appro-
priate for nocturnal festivities ; but when the table groans beneath the
weight of some of Lord Londonderry's splendid silver-gilt racing trophies,
such as, for instance, that won by the famous " Hambletonian," at
Doncaster, in 1796, and the lights of the room are reflected in their
dazzling surfaces, then it presents a scene of splendour, as it did when
298 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
the King of Spain was entertained here, which LucuUus might have
envied and Petronius described.
In spite of the magnificence of its interior, Londonderry House
is essentially home-like, and what is termed " comfortable," and its
splendid rooms with their massive and rich decorations are, perhaps, the
less noticeable, because the eye is attracted by so many objects of
personal interest.
The pictures hanging on the walls are, too, compared with such
wondrous collections as those at Bridgewater House, Stafford House, or
Grosvenor House, to mention but these, of relatively small account,
but set side by side with the pictorial contents of many other more
ambitious dwellings, they fully hold their own in interest and value ;
and when the importance of the family which has been for so many
years now identified with the mansion is considered ; when the notable
gatherings which have so often taken place within its walls are remembered,
Londonderry House properly takes its place among those great mansions
which are at once the pride and wonder of London.
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300 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
in 1900, and based on the old print of Whitehall as it was in 1681/ taken
by John Fisher and engraved by Vertue. By this plan it will be seen
that Montagu House occupies the site of various lodgings in the palace
which were formerly allocated to Prince Rupert, Sir Edward Walker, the
Prince of Wales, the Earl of Lauderdale, and Mrs. Kirk; and the front
portion facing Whitehall, stands on part of that ample Privy Garden
which extended more than half-way across the present thoroughfare,
where once stood the sun-dial on which Andrew Marvell wrote a severe
epigram, and where, on a celebrated occasion, honest Pepys saw " the finest
smocks and linen petticoats " belonging to Lady Castlemaine fluttering
in the wind ; which it did him good to look at ! ^
It will thus be seen that no other private residence in London occupies
such an historic site as does the mansion of the Duke of Buccleuch ; for
besides the ghosts of Carolean days that haunt this spot, it must also
be remembered that so early as 1240, Hubert de Burgh built a large
dwelling here, which at that time was called " More," and was situated
between the Hospital of St. James, and the moor or marsh then in
the possession of John Chancellor, as Smith, in his Antiquities of West-
minster, tells us. The place having subsequently become the property
of the Preaching or Black Friars, that fraternity sold it to Walter de
Grey, Archbishop of York, from whose day till the fall of Wolsey it was
the ofiicial residence of the holders of that See. York Place, as it was
then called, owed its chief glory to the magnificent conception of the
great Cardinal on whose fall in 1529, it came into the possession of
Henry VHL ; and from this time till the fire which practically demolished
it in 1698, it was the chief royal residence in London.
Without attempting to fill up this outHne, it will, I think, be sufficient,
to enable the imagination to rehabilitate the life of four centuries, and
to people the site of Montagu House with a crowd of historical personages.
Hubert de Burgh, the great champion of civil rights ; the princely priest
with his liveried army ; the burly monarch who concentrated in his
person all the great qualities and grave defects of the Tudors ; the " fair
virgin throned in the west " who inherited those great qualities ; the
martyr-king who lost his throne and his life for an idea ; and the merry
monarch who was perhaps too clever as well, maybe, as too indolent to
run the risk of losing either. These, with the crowd of notable personages
surrounding them, may well be conjured up, as we stand on the spot
where they once moved and had their being. But we are rather now
1 This has been ingeniously done by superimposing the outlines of the palace on a current
Ordnance Survey.
" Diary, May 21, 1662.
MONTAGU HOUSE 301
concerned with the house that arose on the site of the old palace, than
with the illustrious ones who peopled the latter.
Almost twenty years after the fire which destroyed the whole of the
palace with the exception of the Banqueting Hall and some unimportant
buildings adjoining it, and devoured those pictures and furniture which
Evelyn bemoans in his diary, Robert, Viscount Molesworth, obtained a
lease for a term of thirty-one years from 1719, of a small piece of ground
having about seventy feet frontage with a depth of ten feet ; five years
later Colonel Charles Churchill also obtained a lease of another piece of
land adjoining on the south, and thus lying between Lord Molesworth's
acquisition and the river ; the extent of the whole, together with, as we
shall see, a further portion, being practically equivalent to the site which
Montagu House and its grounds now occupy.
It would appear that soon after, both these leases became vested in
John, second Duke of Montagu, for, in 1731, we find him petitioning
for an extension of them and also for a fresh lease of additional land
adjoining. These extensions he obtained for a further term of thirty-
one years, and immediately began the erection of old Montagu House,
which appears to have been completed two years later, as it was then
valued at /^200 per annum. A drawing is preserved in the British Museum
showing the old house as it appeared in 1825, and from this we can see
how, commodious though it was, it fell short of the splendid palace which
was to replace it.^ The stables are shown adjoining it to the east, and
it was for the accommodation of these buildings that the Duke petitioned
for a lease of the piece of ground on which they stood, in 1733, in which
year he also obtained a fresh lease of the whole property for fifty years.
On the south-west side of the house, as shown in the drawing, are obvious
additions to the main structure, and it was probably with a view to their
erection that the Duke again applied for another lease of certain land
" lately used as a Passage to the water side," at which time he also
petitioned for a lease of some of the foreshore " where," as the memorial
quaintly phrases it, " quantityes of mudd and filth of all kinds collect
and settle, to the great nuisance and damage of your memorialist, whose
habitation is thereby rendered, after all the expense he hath been at,
very unwholesome." ^
The Duke of Montagu, who made these various applications for the
improvement of his property, and whose portrait by Kneller bears out
the remark of Stukeley that " his aspect was grand, manly, and full of
> The fine view of Whitehall by Canaletto, which now hangs in Montagu House, shows
the old residence on the right hand. This picture used to be at Dalkeith, where Waagen saw
it, and described it as "very interesting."
- Quoted in The Uld I'alacc of Whitehall, by the Rev. Canon Sheppard.
302 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
dignity," ^ died in 1749, ^^'^ ^°^ ^ ^^"^^ ^^^ Crown seems to have enjoyed
a not unmerited rest from further appHcations for renewal of leases.
However in 1767 the Duke's executors bestirred themselves, and obtained,
in the following year, a new reversionary lease of all the premises com-
prised in the former leases on behalf, in trust, of Mary, Countess of
Cardigan, the Duke's daughter and heiress, whose husband was created,
in 1766, Duke of Montagu, and who, on the death of his father-in-law in
1749, had assumed the name and arms of Montagu. This Duke, who
died in 1790, left only one child (EHzabeth) surviving at his death, who
became Duchess of Buccleuch, having married in 1767 the third Duke
of Buccleuch and fifth Duke of Queensberry ; and she, under the will
of her grandfather, John, had a life interest in the house and grounds,
which thus, through her, passed to their present ducal owner. In 1 8 10,
a sixty-one years' lease of the whole was granted to Henry, Duke of
Buccleuch, which lease, however, was surrendered in 1855, and fifteen
years later a fresh one for ninety-nine years was granted ; the fifth Duke
having begun the erection of Montagu House, which is to-day one of
the most imposing of the private palaces of London, in 1858.
William Burn, the architect of the mansion, chose as his leading motif
that French Renaissance style which is so particularly effective where ample
space is available for its proper development, and which so well harmonises
with surrounding buildings when they are, as is here the case, constructed
of stone ; the mansarde roof which has been most unjustly stigmatised
as an architectural absurdity, adds dignity to the building, and helps to
give its elevation an importance which, in consequence of the lower
level of the ground on which the house is built, would hardly have been
attained by any other scheme of architecture.
An interesting circumstance connected with the erection of Montagu
House is the fact that when the original edifice was pulled down,
practically the whole of the materials was ground down and formed
into concrete for the foundations of the new house, and thus helped
with other elaborate methods to make it water-tight ; a necessary pre-
caution, when it is remembered that in those days the Embankment
was not formed, and the tides of the adjacent river were even less under
control than they are at present ; added to which, two streams formerly
ran from this spot to the ornamental water in St. James's Park, the closing
' It was apropos of the will of this Diike that Walpole thus writes to Montagu on July 20,
1 749 : " There are two codicils, one in favour of his servants, the other of his dogs, cats,
and creatures, which was a little unnecessary, for Lady Cardigan has exactly his turn for
saving everj'thing's life. As he \vas making the codicil, one of his cats jumped on his knee.
'What,' says he, 'have you a mind to be a witness, too ! You can't, for you are a party
concerned.'"
MONTAGU HOUSE 303
of which caused some of the adjacent residences in Whitehall to crack
badly.
Of the many noble houses which at one time clustered together on
this spot, Montagu House is the only one that survives, in its recon-
structed form, as the town house of the family with which it has always
been identified. As we have seen, in a former chapter, Richmond House
has disappeared altogether, and Richmond Terrace stands on its site ;
Portland House has long since passed away, as has Carrington House to
make room for the new War Office buildings, while Holdernesse House
and Pembroke House, to mention but these, have been metamorphosed
into subsidiary Government offices. Montagu House alone stands in
solitary glory, the most easterly of those great houses which form one of
the most dignified features of London. When the fifth Duke obtained
his long lease, he was bound by its conditions to spend ^20,000 on the
house he was to erect, but although the stone for its construction was
brought straight from Portland by water and landed on the garden side of
the building, where the Embankment now runs, and thus a large saving in
freightage effected, the total cost amounted to nearly five times that sum !
The interior, both in decoration and contents, is fully commensurate
with its outward appearance, and shows that not only was money lavishly
expended on its beautification, but that consummate taste and judgment
were also exercised. Five great rooms : the Drawing Room, the Ball
Room, the Dining Room, the Saloon, and the Duke's Sitting Room, are
particularly noticeable, not only for the beauty of their ceilings, which
are alone things of joy in themselves, but also on account of the splendid
furniture, the exquisite porcelain, as well as those masterpieces in half-a-
dozen arts which we are accustomed to call objets d'art, probably because
their ■provhiance is principally from the land of BouUe and Riesener,
Pigalle and Gouthi^re, and also because, although our country is so rich
in their possession, we have not yet coined a word that seems to logically
suffice for their description as a whole. But the chief importance of the
collection which is contained in Montagu House consists in its wonderful
Vandycks and its incomparable series of miniatures.
The Duke's Sitting Room contains several portraits of particular
interest, and there also hang on the walls four landscapes by Zuccarelli
of great merit, as well as two by Jacques Courtois, both portraying those
cavalry engagements in the pictorial description of which this painter
was so happy ; Guido Reni is represented by " The Magdalen," arrayed
in loose pink drapery ; and there are two Italian landscapes by Jan
Asselin. The portraits include a head and shoulders of Sir Ralph
Winwood, whose collection of State documents is a standard authority
304 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
for the reigns of Elizabeth and her two successors, by Mierevelt ; and a
presentment of himself by John Riley, whom Walpole calls " one of the
best native painters that has flourished in England," who, had he possessed
a quarter of Kneller's vanity, " might have persuaded the world he was
as great a master," and who lies buried in Bishopsgate Church. Another
portrait of a painter hanging in this room is that of himself by Furini,
who, in his more characteristic work, is said to have combined the beauty
of Guido with the grace of Albano. From Lely's hand is a head and
bust of the Duke of Monmouth, while Robert Walker is responsible for
a " kit-cat " picture of the Protector, who employed him not infrequently
to portray his coarse features ; but a greater than Walker is here in the
person of William Dobson, of whom there are two works ; one a portrait
of Hobbes ; the other that of George Gordon, second Marquis of
Huntly. Dobson, who succeeded Vandyck as Sergeant Painter to the
King, accompanied Charles I. to Oxford during the civil wars, and there
painted portraits of him and several of the nobility, among whom may
have been the subject of this latter picture, who we know was a devoted
royalist.
There is also here a remarkably fine portrait, by Beechy, of the Duke
of Montagu in the Windsor uniform and wearing the star of the Garter,
as well as a life-size picture of the fifth Duke of Buccleuch, represented
as sitting in this very room, by Knighton Warren ; but the gems of the
apartment are from the hands of Reynolds and Gainsborough. Sir
Joshua's canvas represents Lady Elizabeth Montagu, Duchess of Buccleuch,
daughter of the Duke of Montagu, and wife of the third Duke of Buccleuch.
She is represented in old age, seated and wearing a dress of grey silk,
with a shawl hanging over her arms. The picture is one of the few signed
by the painter, and bears his initials and the date, 1755, upon it. Lady
Elizabeth must have been one of the hundred and twenty people who
sat to Reynolds in this year, a year when his fame was increasing by leaps
and bounds ; but curiously enough her name does not appear in his list
of sitters. By Gainsborough, is the portrait of Lady Mary Montagu,
daughter of the second Duke of Montagu, and afterwards wife of the
Earl of Cardigan, created Duke of Montagu, in 1766, whose portrait by
Beechy I have just mentioned.
In the Duchess's Boudoir hang several interesting pictures, notably
two portraits, male and female, by Pourbus the elder ; and particularly
a work by one of the many followers of Holbein, Penne or Toto or Horne-
band, who were all in Henry VHL's employment, representing the King,
Edward, Prince of Wales, and the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, with the
inevitable Will Somers, the jester, in the background.
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3o6 THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
The catholicity of taste observable in the Drawing Room is also
to be found among the pictures in the Ante-Room. Here the Italian,
Spanish, Dutch, and Flemish schools are represented, and here, too, hangs
Sir Godfrey Kneller's portrait of John, Duke of Montagu, as a young
man, as well as Eustache le Sueur's " Joseph of Arimathaea."
Of the Italians, we have Raphael, with a portion of a cartoon, apparently
an " Ecce Homo " ; Carlo Dolci, and Sohmena, and Andrea del Sarto ;
Pietro da Cortona and Carlo Maratti, represented by the sacred subjects
with which their names are generally associated. The two Murillos here,
represent respectively " The Virgin and Saviour," and " St. John the Baptist
as a Child," seated in a rocky landscape ; and there are also in this
room landscapes by Peter Roos, and Cuyp ; three of Van der Neer's
familiar and beautiful moonlight scenes, and genre pieces by Ostade,
Teniers, and Peter de Hooghe, the latter a fine picture portraying a
lady knitting and seated in a room, through the door of which is seen
a distant view of a town bathed in sunshine.
In the Gallery among the twenty-seven works that hang on the walls,
there are four of Monnoyer's graceful flower pieces. This painter
adorned the palaces of Versailles, Marly, Meudon, and Trianon with
his work, and thus attracted the attention of Lord Montagu, then
Ambassador to France, at whose invitation he came to England where
he remained some twenty years, during which time he was largely occupied
in producing those flower pieces for Montagu House, which are con-
sidered the finest of his works.
Another foreigner who visited this country was John Griffier, the
friend of Rembrandt and Adrian Van der Velde, the manner of which
latter, by-the-bye, he was wont to imitate, whose " View of the Thames,
looking over Westminster Bridge," hangs in the Gallery. Griffier came
to England in 1667, and died here in 1718 ; his chief patron was the
Duke of Beaufort, but he seems to have been well supported generally.
There is also a similar view by Canaletto, who, it will be remembered,
came to this country on the advice of his friend Amiconi, and during
his two years' stay here produced a number of fine and interesting views
of London.^ Another particularly valuable pictorial " document," is
Marcellas Laroon the younger's picture of " A Party in Old Montagu
House," because it not only shows us part of the interior of the original
mansion, but also because it indicates that the Duke of Montagu
was one of Laroon's many patrons ; while another topographical picture
in the Gallery is Anderson's " View on the Thames, looking towards
Westminster Bridge," which is signed, and dated 1810.
' At Dalkeith Palace, in the Canaletto Room, are ten of his masterpieces in this genre.
MONTAGU HOUSE 307
Of the portraits, there is that of WiUiam Dobson, by the artist
himself ; a picture of Henry VIII., of the school of Holbein ; Rave-
steign's picture of an unknown man ; Sir Peter Lely's EUzabeth Percy,
Duchess of Somerset, as a child, and the same artist's presentment of
EHzabeth, Countess of Northumberland, who afterwards married Ralph,
Duke of Montagu ; and a copy of the head of Marie de Medicis by
Rubens ; while from the brush of Sir Antonio Moro, is that of a man
in a black doublet, whose identity is not satisfactorily accounted for,
and Zuccero's Edward VI. on a white horse, of which picture it is said
that it originally represented Francis I., but that the head of the Enghsh
monarch was substituted, probably by Sir E. Montagu, who was the
King's tutor, and to whom the work belonged.
In the West Drawing Room are some fine examples of the Dutch
school of landscape painting by such artists as Jacobus van Artois ; Jacob
Ruysdael, of whom there are two ; Pijnacker, and Paul Brill ; Van Romeyn,
and Van der Neer. There is also Canaletto's extremely interesting and
valuable " View of Whitehall," taken from the vicinity of old Montagu
House. Besides these works, are a number of pictures representing
sacred subjects, such as Giulio Romano's " Virgin and Child," SoUmena's
" Mary Magdalen washing the Feet of the Saviour," Bassano's " Entomb-
ment," and Vandyck's " Virgin Mary and Infant Christ " ; and among
the portraits is that of a lady in a crimson dress by Lorenzo Lotto, and
a portrait of a man by the same artist ; a full-length of James, first Duke
of Hamilton, by Gonzales Coques, as well as that painter's copy of Van-
dyck's " Lady Frances Seymour, Countess of Southampton " ; a portrait
of Martin Luther, by Lucas Cranach, and Clouet's head of Anthony,
King of Navarre ; while, to make an end, Frans Hals is represented by
a pair — one, a young lad playing on the flute, the other, a young girl
dressed in a yellow gown, and both executed with that bravura which
stamps all the best work of this great master.
The portraits in the Drawing Room include that of a lady by Sir
Antonio Moro ; Kneller's James, Duke